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Interview; religion and rape

International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women – UN 16 Days of Activism: Day 1 – Ericka Dunbar

by Ericka Dunbar on

To celebrate the first day of the 16 Days of Activism Campaign, which coincides with International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, we spotlight activist Ericka Dunbar. You can learn more about Ericka’s work here.
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I am Ericka Dunbar, a Ph.D. student at Drew University, completing my studies in the area of Bible & Cultures. My focus is the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. My dissertation is entitled: “Trafficking Hadassah: An Africana Reading of Collective Trauma, Memory and Identity in the Book of Esther.”

My research connects to activism in several ways. Foremost, in my research, I utilize intersectionality and polyvocality as frameworks that enable me to expand traditional interpretations of biblical texts. The application of these frameworks illuminates the ways that Africana girls and women often experience intersectional oppression at the hands of patriarchs and colonial entities. For example, both Hagar in the book of Genesis and the virgin girls from Ethiopia and other African locales in the book of Esther, are taken from their native lands and sexually exploited by patriarchs and colonial subjects.

When reading the narratives intertextually, systematic oppression of Africana females due to intersectional identities becomes evident. Africana girls and women are sexually exploited at the intersections of ethnicity, gender, class, and in relation to interlocking systems of power and domination by patriarchs and colonial subjects. In these texts, ideologies of Africana inferiority are promoted and social hierarchies are created, frequently relegating Africana females low on the hierarchy (as concubines and slaves). Both the ideologies and hierarchy function to justify the abuse and oppression of Africana females.  Consequently, Africana girls and women become sex slaves to patriarchs and kings that extract their bodies from their natal homes and transport them to other locales for the patriarch/king’s sexual pleasure.

In addition, the application of these frameworks provides an opportunity to integrate the voices and experiences of Africana girls and women regularly ignored or minimized by interpreters, namely the nameless virgin girls in the book of Esther. This type of activism resonates with the type of activism reflected in the #SayHerName movement.

#SayHerName raises awareness of the countless Black girls and women that are victimized by police and anti-Black racialized violence. It centers the stories of those whose experiences of police and racialized violence are muted in both historical and media representations.  My work parallels this movement in that I give voice to the often overlooked and ignored experiences and traumatization of Africana girls and women in the ancient biblical contexts. However, not only do I focus on Africana girls and women in ancient contexts but I also illustrate how the girls’ and women’s experiences in the biblical narratives resonate with the experiences of Africana girls and women trafficked and rendered sex slaves during the transatlantic slave trade and even into the present.

While, the #SayHerName movement focuses on Africana girls and women that are killed by police in the US, I focus on sexualized violence perpetrated against Africana girls and women. I also emphasize that Africana girls and women were recognized as property of colonies in ancient contexts and during the slave trade. Therefore, they received no legal protection from rape and sexual enslavement. I point out these facts as a means of highlighting that current police brutality against Africana females is a legacy of patriarchy and colonial domination. In addition, the failure of law enforcement and legal systems adequately to protect Africana victims from sexual exploitation or to punish offenders is in large part a horrendous legacy of racist stereotyping and colonialism.

Perhaps some contemporary examples of the sexual exploitation of Africana females will illuminate the types of injustice that advocates such as myself are speaking out about. Three women, Cyntoia Brown, Chrystal Kizer, and Alexis Martin who were trafficked and sexually exploited in the USA as minors, either have been or are being prosecuted for defending themselves against their traffickers. The forfeiture of protection by police and legal systems is another form of violent brutality. Moreover, the lack of protection from an abuser and the criminalization of victims exacerbate their suffering.  Girls and women should not be criminalized for protecting themselves or escaping abusive exploitation. Therefore, I not only emphasize intersectional oppression and elucidate damaging ideologies but I also critique systemic oppression and the failure of legal entities to uphold justice and protect vulnerable persons.

Secondly, I teach with an emphasis on trauma and social justice. It is essential for me to prepare students for the world and ministry by shaping lives that are committed to not only critical thinking but to justice as well. When I help students to recognize inequalities and trauma in the ancient world of the text and in our very own contexts, we create conscientious communities that are responsive to discriminations and disparities. As co-learners, we help each other recognize the mechanisms of power and how power can be used to transform systems and conditions to ensure justice and equity for all members of society.

One way that we promote equity and justice is by creating a space that affirms the humanity and dignity of all. We allow diverse knowledge, experiences, and interpretations to enhance the learning space and we respond to critical issues that impact humans globally. I find that in addition to contextualized learning, interdisciplinarity is a great asset for social analysis, promoting critical thinking, and interpreting information to discern solutions. Moreover, we discuss and respond to these issues both inside and outside of the classroom. Practices that demonstrate an orientation to social justice include a trip to the Civil Rights Museum, activism through social media engagement, involvement in protests/rallies/marches/voter registration drives, implementing and organizing church programming to address social issues, and/or involvement in organizations that create/impact legislation. There are a wide range of practices that our learning community engage in as a means of embodying our scholar-activist identities. We supplement book-knowledge with experiential knowledge to produce changes in the communities in which we serve.

Alongside teaching at Spelman College and the Interdenominational Theological Center, I serve as a representative on the Joint Action for Advocacy for Justice and Peace Convening Table, National Council of Churches (USA), and on the faculty team for the Samuel DeWitt Proctor’s Dale Andrews Freedom Seminary hosted by the Children’s Defense Fund. The seminary course is an immersion experience for seminarians who desire to engage and cultivate prophetic voices with communities that contend against systemic injustices that directly impact children and youth. Scholars, community and church leaders, and activists gather at this week-long Institute to describe and model non-violent direct organization and collective action for justice though public theology, communal, and congregational praxis.  This past summer, I took two of my former Spelman students to the institute and transported two others from Candler School of Theology at Emory. I’ve taught students at Spelman that participated in other CDF programming as well. I have become a mentor beyond the classroom to many of these students and to other students that I’ve met through the Forum for Theological Exploration. These relationships are meaningful to me because of our relatedness as Africana women and our shared focus on child advocacy and on challenging sexualized violence against Africana women in ecclesiastical structures and society.

In late October, a Clark Atlanta University (Atlanta, USA) student by the name of Alexis Crawford was sexually assaulted by her roommate’s boyfriend and then allegedly murdered by her roommate and the roommate’s boyfriend. This atrocious event shook the Clark Atlanta community as well as the members of the other schools of the Atlanta University consortium, (two of which I serve as an adjunct professor) and the wider community surrounding these institutions. Specifically, the students in my Intro to Old Testament class at Spelman were traumatized by this killing because of the sheer callousness of Alexis’s abuse, their proximity to Alexis’s apartment and school, the failure of legal entities to protect Alexis, and because many have expressed experiencing similar instances of unsolicited sexual advances in their lifetimes. This killing illuminated for us that our scholarship is not divorced from the world around us. Rather, our scholarship is informed and impacted by the communities and societies that surround us. This semester, it has become increasingly clear that there is an exchange between the theories we engage in the classroom and our lived experiences beyond the classroom. In the last couple of class sessions since Alexis went missing and was found murdered, my students have been reflecting upon experiences of trauma and assessing how the educational processes we’ve engaged in this semester continue to aid in our ability to identify and challenge social injustices in practical ways.

Besides writing, teaching, and mentoring, I also travel and present papers on sexual trafficking and collective trauma at international conferences. Two of my papers/presentations are being turned into an article and book chapter and published in the next couple of months. Last summer, I presented a paper entitled, “For Such a Time as This #UsToo: Representations of Sexual Trafficking, Collective Trauma and Horror in the Book of Esther,” delivered at the 2018 Religion and Rape Culture Conference at the University of Sheffield (Sheffield, England). This paper has been turned into an article and is being published in a special edition of the journal Bible and Critical Theory. This past summer, I presented a keynote paper entitled “Sisters of the Soil: Surviving Collective, Cultural Traumatization: Intertextualities Between Hagar, the Ethiopian Virgin Girls in the Book of Esther and Mother Africa,” at the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians 5thPan-African Conference (Celebrating the 30thAnniversary of the Circle) at the University of Botswana (Gaborone, Botswana). An excerpt of this paper was translated into German and published in FAMA (Switzerland). The longer keynote paper will be published as a chapter in a book entitled Mother Earth, Postcolonial and Liberation Theologies by Lexington Publishers.

Activism is important to me because it galvanizes persons to participate in collective action to ensure every member of society is treated fairly and equitably. Activism and advocacy are means to inspire and create change. Students are capable of effecting social change thus it is important to reflect on and engage in advocacy and activism within and outside of the classroom. During the 16 Days of Activism I will continue to educate persons about the mechanisms of sex trafficking and its psychological, emotional, and physical impacts on Africana girls and women. I intend to tell the stories of girls and women whose lives have been impacted by sexualized violence as a means of increasing awareness of gender-based violence and to prevent and end sexualized violence against girls and women. I also hope that any efforts to decriminalize the sexual exploitation and trafficking of person will be thwarted.

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Princeton Research on Religion and Sexual Violence: Podcasts

by David Tombs on

The Centre of Theological Inquiry (CTI) at Princeton is currently in the midst of a five-year programme focusing on Religion and Global Concerns. Each fall and spring semester leading scholars gather to think together about different global concerns. For 2018-2019, the focus is on religion and violence.

Three of the scholars in Fall 2018 focused on religion and sexual violence. Elisabet Le Roux (sociology), Louise Du Toit (philosophy and feminist ethics), and David Tombs (theology) brought a multi-disciplinary approach to their conversations. In addition to undertaking their own individual research projects they collaborated in writing a feminist reflection on victim hierarchies in conflict-related sexual violence.

CTI’s Podcast, ‘Theology Matters’ hosted by Joshua Mauldin, the CTI Deputy Director, provides a space for the work at CTI to be shared around the world. You can listen to the interviews below by clicking on the title of each.

Reflections on doing empirical research on religion, religious leaders and sexual violence

Dr Elisabet Le Roux is Senior Researcher in the Unit for Religion and Development Research, Faculty of Theology, Stellenbosch University. Her research looks at the intersection between faith and development, particularly in relation to gender issues. She has Masters degrees in both Translation Studies and Theology, and her PhD in Sociology was on sexual violence against women during armed conflict and the role of African churches. She has carried out her research in Africa, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East.

 

Sexual Violence, Colonial Racism and Political Transition in South Africa

Professor Louise Du Toit is Associate Professor in Philosophy at Stellenbosch University. Her main research area is feminist philosophy, particularly in European and African traditions. She focuses on a range of topics, including sexual violence, political philosophy, philosophy and literature, legal philosophy, environmental philosophy, and feminist philosophy of religion. She is currently involved in several international research collaborations with colleagues in Europe and Africa.

 

Recognising Jesus as a victim of sexual violence:Developing a faith-based response to sexual violence.

Professor David Tombs is Howard Paterson Chair of Theology and Public Issues at the University of Otago, Aotearoa New Zealand, and a Research Associate at the University of Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa. He has a longstanding interest in contextual and liberation theologies. His current research focusses on religion, violence, and peace, particularly Christian responses to gender-based violence, sexual abuse, and torture. He is originally from the United Kingdom and has previously worked in London, Belfast, and Dublin. David is an associate member of the Shiloh Project.

 

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Everyday Rape Cultures And Religion: A Complex Relationship? Dr Katie Edwards In Conversation With Dr Dawn Llewellyn, Sunday 28 April 2.30pm

by Shiloh Project on

Everyday Rape Cultures and Religion: A Complex Relationship?

Dr Katie Edwards in conversation with Dr Dawn Llewellyn,  at 2.30pm

  • Garret Theatre

Part of: Storyhouse Women

In this session, Dr Katie Edwards discusses the significant ways religion perpetuates and challenges the myths and misconceptions that lie at the heart of rape cultures: ideas of purity and sinfulness; the idealisation of women’s bodies, sexuality and sex; and the powerful taboos and silences that conceptualise gender violence as ‘inevitable’ and ‘normal’.  From #MeToo, the sex abuse scandals in the Church, the rise of ‘purity’ practices, and our expectations of what it means to be a ‘good girl’, religion is a powerful influence in our contemporary world.

Dr Katie Edwards is the Director of the Sheffield Interdisciplinary Institute for Biblical Studies and Co-director of The Shiloh Project at the University of Sheffield. Katie is a frequent commentator and contributor in the national media and has written various articles for the national press. Recently, she presented the award-winning BBC Radio 4 Lent Talk The Silence of the Lamb, which reflected on her experiences of witnessing sexual abuse as a teenager.

Dr Dawn Llewellyn is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Chester. She researches and has published on gender and feminism in contemporary Christianity, and is currently writing a new book on women’s experiences of motherhood, voluntary childlessness, and Christianity.

This Storyhouse Women event is free to attend, for pass-holders only.

Everyday Rape Cultures and Religion: A Complex Relationship?

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Challenging Clergy Abuse in the Catholic Church: An Interview with Rocio Figueroa Alvear

by Caroline Blyth on

Today, over 100 senior Roman Catholic bishops from around the world will meet in Rome for a 4-day summit called by Pope Francis to address the long-standing crisis of clerical sexual abuse. It’s fitting, then, that today’s post is an interview with a scholar and activist whose work highlights and challenges the crisis of abuse in the Catholic Church.

Dr Rocio Figueroa Alvear is a Peruvian Theologian, Lecturer in Systematic Theology at Good Shepherd College in Auckland and an External Researcher at the Centre for Theology and Public Issues at Otago University, New Zealand. She has a bachelor’s degree and license in theology from the Pontifical Faculty of Theology in Lima and her doctorate in theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. She has previously lectured and worked in Peru, Italy, and Mexico. She worked in the Holy See as head of the Women’s section in the Pontifical Council for the Laity. She has published on women’s studies and reciprocity between men and women.

Rocio’s present research focus is theological and pastoral responses for survivors of Church sexual abuse. She spoke about her work at a recent public lecture organized by Voices of Faith, ‘Overcoming Silence – Women’s Voices in the Catholic Abuse Crisis’. She also appeared earlier this year on the BBC’s Woman’s Hour programme, #NunsToo: Nuns abused by priests and bishops. Rocio works with theologians Professor David Tombs and Dr Jayme Reave on a project, ‘When did we see you naked?’, which considers the historical, pastoral, and theological questions around faith-based responses to sexual abuse.

More details of and links to Rocio’s research are listed below.

Tell us a bit about yourself

I am a Peruvian Theologian and currently I am a lecturer in Systematic Theology at Good Shepherd College in Auckland and an External Researcher at the Centre for Theology and Public Issues at Otago University, New Zealand.

I did my doctorate in theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. I have previously lectured and worked in Peru, Italy, and Mexico. I lived for 15 years in Rome and while there I worked in the Holy See for five years as the head of the Women’s section in the Pontifical Council for the Laity. I have always enjoyed working on women’s issues. While in Mexico I developed a program to promote micro-businesses and the empowerment of women in an indigenous community in Puebla.

Following my research and activity on the promotion of women, I am currently focused on theological and pastoral responses for survivors of sexual abuse.

Can you tell us more about this aspect of your research – what inspired you to focus on this topic, what research you’ve done to date?

My first inspiration was my own experience. I am a survivor of sexual abuse within the Church. I belonged to the Sodalicio Catholic community in Peru, where I was abused when I was 15 years old by the second-in-charge.  It took me twenty years to be able to face my own abuse.  I was a member of the Marian Community of Reconciliation (MCR), a Catholic Association of lay consecrated women, which is the female branch of Sodalicio. I served as the MCR General Superior for 9 years (1991-1998). In 2006 I began to receive reports of sexual abuse of male members of the Sodalicio community. Because of what happened to me personally these reports immediately made sense. In 2006 I began an investigation and I helped these victims to present accusations to the ecclesiastical court in Lima, and to the Vatican in 2011. During this time, I developed a relationship of trust with the victims and because of this, I felt the necessity to do even more work for survivors using my theological and pastoral research.

The first outcome of this research was a project with Prof. David Tombs at the Centre for Theology and Public Issues at Otago University. This report was entitled “Listening to male survivors of Church sexual abuse. Voices from survivors in Sodalicio”. The aim was to explore the impact of church-related sexual abuse on each of the interviewees and to identify the short and long-term psychological and spiritual consequences associated with it. There are a lot of studies about the topic of sexual abuse within the Church, however, the spiritual impacts of sexual abuse are a largely neglected.  One lesson from this report is the devastating effects on the faith and the spiritual identity of survivors. This made us conclude that the spiritual impact of abuse should be included in any full understanding of impact and consequences.

At this time my research is focused on the response of survivors to recognizing Jesus as a victim of sexual abuse.

What do you see as the main significance of this research?

Prof. David Tombs and I wanted to uncover the responses of survivors to the naming of Jesus as a victim of sexual abuse. This research has as its basis the idea that the torture and crucifixion of Jesus involved sexual humiliation.

The first academic discussion of Jesus as a victim of sexual abuse was developed by Prof.  Tombs in 1999. In the ancient world, crucifixion as a practice imposed on prisoners was not just meant to kill the victim but also to sexually humiliate them. Nakedness during execution was a sign of humiliation and absolute powerlessness for both the Romans and the Jews.  Jesus being stripped of his clothes by the soldiers and his nakedness on the cross allow us to read the passion narratives as the story of someone who was sexually humiliated (see also Tombs, 2018).

Historically, the sexual component of Jesus’ torture was minimized in the artistic representations of the crucifixion by depicting him wearing a loincloth. We wanted to know how survivors felt about this idea. We asked them if they thought the historical evidence of Jesus as a victim of sexual abuse was persuasive. We also asked them if they thought the topic could help victims and the wider Church. The responses have been fascinating.  We think that their insights could help the wider Church in confronting the crisis of sexual abuse and improving their understanding of survivors.

How important do you think it is for researchers and teachers in theological education to bring activism into their work and teaching?

Theology is not just a theoretical science isolated from the reality of the world. On the contrary, it is concerned with how to express the meaning of faith and how to respond to God in the present. Inspired by the Latin American way of doing theology I consider that discipleship comes first, and theology is a second step on this path. As disciples we want to live the Gospel and be committed to the needs of the poor, the vulnerable, and those who have no voice. By doing this, I believe that our theological reflections and teaching can only be enriched and fulfil the purpose of doing theology.

What would you like to say to our readers about the importance of engaging with the topic of religion and gender violence in our research and teaching?

There are some challenges in our society that cannot be avoided. The topic of religion and gender violence is one of them.  Religion is such a fundamental dimension in the life of so many people in the world that we need to reflect on how it can help those who have experienced any kind of gender violence. At the same time each religious community must become a welcoming place for healing and reconciliation. However, it is important also to analyze how many times religion has been misused to excuse or condone abusive behavior. Religious communities have leaders with spiritual authority. This authority can be used for healing and guiding, but it can also be misused to abuse members of the community. The religious worldview and the faith of members of the community can be harnessed to justifying gender violence. Religious communities are never neutral; they need to play a role in gender violence.

Some of Rocio’s publications include:

Figueroa Alvear, R., & Tombs. D. 2019. ‘Recognizing Jesus as a victim of sexual abuse. Responses from Sodalicio survivors in Peru’.

Figueroa Alvear, R., & Tombs. D. 2016. ‘Listening to male survivors of church sexual abuse: Voices from Sodalicio abuses in Peru’.

Rocío Figueroa Alvear and David Tombs. 2016. ‘Escuchando a sobrevivientes masculinos de abuso sexual en la Iglesia: Voces de sobrevivientes de abusos del Sodalicio en el Perú’.

Figueroa Alvear, R., & Tombs. D ‘Lived Religion and the Traumatic Impact of Sexual Abuse: The Sodalicio case in Peru’ in: Trauma and Lived Religion. Transcending the Ordinary, ed. R. Ruard Ganzevoort-Srdjan Sremac, Amsterdam: Palgrave 2018).

Figueroa Alvear, R., Covenant of Love – Sources (México City 2015).

Figueroa Alvear, R., Man and woman, equal or different? (Puebla 2013).

Figueroa Alvear, R.,  Towards my own true self (Mexico City, 2011).

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#SheToo: Bible Society Podcast series

by Shiloh Project on

Today, the Bible Society launches #SheToo, a seven-part podcast series, produced and presented by award-winning journalist Rosie Dawson, exploring some of the biblical texts that include violence against women.

Three Shiloh Project members, Katie Edwards,  Johanna Stiebert and Meredith Warren, are interviewed as part of the series.

http://www.biblesociety.org.uk/explore-the-bible/shetoo/?referrer=shetoo

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UN 16 Days of Activism – Day 11: Tat-siong Benny Liew

by Tat-siong Benny Liew on

Tell us about yourself. Who are you and what do you do?

My name is Tat-siong Benny Liew, and I am currently Class of 1956 Professor in New Testament Studies at the College of Holy Cross.  Holy Cross is a Jesuit liberal arts college located in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA; however, I am not a Catholic.  

Although I have been living in North America for over 30 years, I was born in Hong Kong.  Since my father passed away when I was relatively young, my mother, who was strong and wise despite of having only an elementary education, basically raised me and my five siblings all by herself.  For both of my primary and secondary education in Hong Kong, I attended an Anglican school that is only for boys.  During most of those years and in that particular environment, I am sad to say that I had bought into many of the dominant and pervasive gender ideologies. When my eldest sister became a pastor of a local church, she experienced many discriminatory treatments that were based on gender; for instance, her district superintendent tried to tell her that the denomination would not provide housing for her because she could live with her family as a single and unmarried woman.  While homophobia was and is by no means absent in Hong Kong, I only witnessed it first hand after I moved to the USA to continue my studies.  

Besides learning from my own mother and my eldest sister, I am fortunate to have many wise and powerful female or queer teachers and colleagues who helped me gain a better sense and sensibility about various matters pertaining to gender.  My teaching and scholarship about religion in general and the Bible in particular have, as a result, always attended to gender-based dynamics and violence, as well as how they intersect with other identity factors and power differentials.  Both of the Bible courses I am teaching this semester, for instance, are cross-listed for the College’s Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies program.  Without implying that my academic work is separable from activism, I have found it more and more important to become personally involved in public movements and protestsagainst discrimination and violence on the basis of gender.

How do you think the Shiloh Project’s work on religion and rape culture can add to and enrich discussion and action on the topic of gender activism today? Is there more we can do? What else should we post?

I like the term being used by the Shiloh Project: rape culture.  The word “culture” implies that one cannot look at the act of rape by itself; we must understand that a lot of things have happened before and around rape to enable the act.  Because of this, I would like to see more explicit and more intentional research and work being done on sexual invective and harassment.

I am thinking here of the recent work by David Shepherd.  Instead of focusing on the blatant horror against women in the book of Judges (such as the rape and dismemberment of the Levite’s concubine in Judges 19, or the violent capturing of women in Judges 21), Shepherd uses the explicit mention of Judges in the beginning of Ruth (Ruth 1:1) to point to the subtlerpresence of sexual harassment against a foreign, female worker such as Ruth in the fields of Boaz.  The fact that Boaz has to tell Ruth to always keep company with other women workers and to glean so only after the male workers are done, even though he has already told his men not to bother Ruth (Ruth 2:8-9), signifies that Boaz is cognizant of the pervasive danger and widespread threat against women workers and this is further confirmed by Naomi (Ruth 2:22).  Although Shepherd uses explicit violence against women to inform his reading of implicit harassment, one may see explicit violence and implicit harassment against women as mutually reinforcing phenomena.

Since we are talking about a culture that enables and condones rapes and other kinds of gender-based violence, I wonder if the Shiloh Project can develop an instrument (such as a survey) that can help institutions (such as faith communities and schools) to get a sense of its climate and culture regarding gender-based discrimination and violence.  (Note: I owe this idea to Sarah Shectman and Seth Sanders of SBAllies.)

In the year ahead, how will you contribute to advancing the aims and goals of The Shiloh Project?  

In the coming year, I plan to be involved in campus activism that seeks to address sexual harassment and violence within my ownCollege community, including emphasis on preventive measures (such as campus-wide education to increase awareness) and institutional accountability.  These important efforts are once again about changing a culture: institutional culture.  I also plan to teach again a course on “Sex, Money, Power, and the Bible” to help students explore how our readings of the Bible may figure and reconfigure our understandings and practices of sex, money, and power in both helpful and harming ways. Finally, I will continue to research and write about gender violence as a biblical studies scholar.

   

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Outlander Soul Podcast: Sexual Violence in Outlander (discussion with Emma Nagouse)

by Outlander Soul on

Outlander Soul continues part 2 of their conversation with Emma Nagouse, whose research at the Sheffield Institute for Interdisciplinary Biblical Studies (SIIBS) at the University of Sheffield (UK) focuses on religion and sexual violence. In this episode, Emma and Jayme Reaves discuss Christ imagery and suffering, the Geneva & Laoghaire question, Fergus, and sexual violence as depicted in Outlander more generally.

(An obvious trigger warning that there will be discussion of rape, sexual violence, and rape culture in this episode).

 

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