Society of Fellows Postdoctoral Scholar
they/them
Siobhan Kelly is a scholar and theorist of trans studies and the study of religion. Currently a Society of Fellows Postdoctoral Scholar at Boston University, Siobhan defended their dissertation, “Public Parts: Psychoanalysis, the Study of Religion, and Trans Subjectivity,” at Harvard University in August of 2024 and will receive their PhD in November. Siobhan’s scholarship looks at the relationship between transphobia in feminist theory, trans studies, and broader popular discourses of gender, sexuality, and transition. Their work has appeared in Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion and Theology & Sexuality, and is forthcoming in Journal of the American Academy of Religion and the edited collection Political Theology Reimagined: Theories, Ruptures, Itineraries (Duke University Press). Siobhan is interested in trans, queer, and feminist theory; psychoanalysis and deconstruction; theories and methods in religious studies and gender studies; and 20thand 21st century queer and trans art, film, and literature.
At BU, Siobhan is working on two book projects that come out of their dissertation. The first, Public Parts: Fetishism and Genitality, looks at flashpoints in the sprawling discourses of “fetishism” and the recurrent appearance of genitals therein in order to articulate a generalized theory of genitality and genital envy. The second, Trans Antagonism: On Engaging Transphobia, or Not, looks at how we read and understand transphobia within feminist thinking, pursuing what might happen if we allow ourselves to treat such irruptions of phobia antagonistically. Tracking feminist transphobia from its earlier iterations—including in the study of religion through the works of Mary Daly and Janice Raymond—through to more recent TERF nonsense in France, the UK, and the US, this project asks what bitterness, anger, and rage have to offer trans theorizing. In Spring of 2025 Siobhan will offer CAS RN 453 “Topics in Religion and Sexuality: Queer and Trans Religion,” which they promise will be both fun and weird.