Speaker: -

Abstract: »Whether consciously or not, positionality within biblical scholarship is always present; scholars come to the biblical text with their own cultural context which then shapes how they read and interact with the text. The same can then be said of feminist biblical scholarship which has largely been a project of rescuing and recovering the female voices found within the text. While the work of feminist biblical scholarship has been necessary for the continued advancement and flourishing of biblical studies, a symptom of positionality in feminist scholarship is that the weight of discourse on gender and sexuality solely on the female characters in the text. This point is especially salient in scholarship on sexual violence where the conversations lay primarily on a female character’s agency or lack-thereof. Thus, this paper seeks to push the boundaries of such discourse by asking what is at stake for the male voices found in the text. In biblical texts which feature sexual violence against women, how can a balancing act of focusing on both male and female voices enrichen and deepen our understanding of these violent acts? Therefore, this paper will examine the story of Tamar and Amnon in 2 Samuel 13 as a case study by using methodologies like masculinity studies as well as disability, trauma, and pornography theories to rethink how one might approach sexual violence in the biblical text. The work here is not to dismantle or disregard the importance feminist biblical scholarship but rather to think about how the field can be pushed further by balancing conversations about gender and sexuality to rest on the shoulders of both male and female voices. Positionality is unavoidable amongst Biblicists, but it is not something to be fearful of. Rather, an awareness of one’s own positionality can be a tool for pushing the boundaries of where biblical scholarship can go.« (Source: Online Program)

Wikipedia: Ancient History: Ancient Near East / Ancient Israel and Judah | Bible: Books of Samuel / 2 Samuel 13 | Bible: Hebrew Bible / Rape in the Hebrew Bible | Sex and the law: Rape / History of rape