CLGS

EQARS is a group of scholars, religious workers, and activists that began meeting regularly in February 2010 to discuss the emerging area of interest that is queer Asian Pacific Islander (API) religions, and to engage in a collaborative methodology to further each other’s scholarly, religious work and activism. We honor (1) the genealogical evolution of our scholarly work, (2) the developments of community-based and faith-based activism in recent years, and (3) the continued resistance to the silences as well as the "universal" narratives of gay liberation within the broader academy.

PARTICIPANTS

Michael Sepidoza Campos - Ph.D. Candidate in Interdisciplinary Studies: Critical Pedagogy and Cultural Studies, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, CA; Master of Theological Studies,Harvard Divinity School, Cambridge, MA; Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies, University of San Diego, San Diego, CA. Michael's research interests include Filipino-American diaspora, postcolonial theory, queer theory and critical pedagogy. Campos' work in Catholic education both constitutes his ministerial context as well as provides the theoretical space at which he investigates the intersection of pedagogy, theology, ethnicity and gender.

The Rev. Patrick S. Cheng, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology at the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, MA. He holds a Ph.D., M.Phil., and M.A. in systematic theology from Union Theological Seminary in New York City, a J.D. from Harvard Law School, and a B.A. from Yale College. Patrick is an ordained minister with the Metropolitan Community Churches and a contributor to the religion section of the Huffington Post. For more information about Patrick, please see his website at http://www.patrickcheng.net.

Joseph Nicholas Geok Lin Goh is conscious that several deep experiences of God in his tender years helped him make a decision to embark upon a career in religious life and the clerical ministry for a total number of seventeen years. This grace-filled period, replete with seminary training in philosophy, theology and practical ministry, laid the groundwork for an expansion of his theological weltanshauung. His eventual departure from this way of life was a result of his own self-realisation that the Christian event meant that one had to be true to oneself, defying and resisting structures and concepts that limited one to social and ecclesial constructions of heterenormativity and homogeneity. Goh spent two years at the Jesuit School of Theology, where he earned a Licenciate in Sacred Theology (STL) as well as a Master of Theology (ThM) in Systematic Theology, focusing mainly on sacraments, ritual and ethnology. Since then, his area of interest has expanded to queer theology, LGBTQ studies and gender and sexuality issues. Upon his return to Malaysia, Goh secured employment with PT Foundation, a community-based NGO that seeks to foster HIV/AIDS awareness and empowerment among Malaysians, chiefly among sex workers, transgenders and men who have sex with men (MSM).

The Rev. Elizabeth Leung holds a Ph.D. in Christian Spirituality from the Graduate Theological Union at Berkeley, CA. Currently as Coordinating Minister for the Asian Pacific Islander Project at the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry in Pacific School of Religion, Elizabeth engages in analysis of cultural discourses and ethnographical explorations at the intersection of cultures, religion and sexualities. She teaches courses in Christian mysticism, sexuality and Christian spiritualities, LGBT religious concerns in postcolonial perspectives, and has published in the Belgian journal, Studies in Spirituality. Elizabeth is an ordained minister of the United Church of Christ, and a trained spiritual director.

Miak Siew is a M.Div. student at Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California. He is from Singapore and he has been involved in the LGBT rights movement there as a member of People Like Us, the Singapore gay and lesbian group focused on advocacy and public education, as well as a member on the council of Free Community Church, the only gay-affirming church in Singapore. He plans to further return to Singapore to engage in the areas where politics, religion and sexuality intersect.

Lai-shan Yip is currently a Ph.D. student in Interdisciplinary Studies at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. Her research interests maneuver between postcolonial studies, Catholic moral theology, sexuality and feminism, hoping to become an activist-scholar in advocating for social and sexual justice for all. She also holds an M.A. in Pastoral Ministry and a Master degree in Social Work from Boston College. Baptized at the post-Vatican II era, she has been involved in Catholic social justice ministry, feminist and social movements as well as human rights groups in Hong Kong before her graduate study in sexuality and women’s studies at the GTU. After crossing the Pacific, she continues her activist passion but adding a postcolonial critique on universal gay liberation discourse in her participation at an Asian and Pacific Islander LGBTQ religious roundtable at the Pacific School of Religion at Berkeley. In a time when a lay Catholic theological voice in Hong Kong on LGBTQ issues is quite suppressed, she gradually joins those pioneers in breaking the silence, wishing her voice to appear as a blossom in the wilderness. Her first published article on this issue was titled, “A Proposal for Catholic Lesbian Feminist Theology in Hong Kong.

Hugo Córdova Quero holds a Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Studies from the Graduate Theological Union, with major course work taken at the Department of Ethnic Studies, University of California at Berkeley. Currently he is visiting researcher at the Ibero-American Institute at Sophia University in Tokyo, and adjunct faculty at Starr King School for the Ministry, Graduate Theological Union. His areas of research are queer theology, ethnic and migration studies, cultural studies, queer and gender theory, religion, and (post)colonial studies.