In the modern culture wars, conservatives often attack feminist and queer art as sacrilegious or obscene. But why does so much religious iconography animate this creative work? And how? This talk looks at the religious and political possibilities of camp as a style of engagement, focusing on the work of artists Ray Navarro and Judy Chicago. It asks: how do the aesthetics of camp challenge dominant ways that we think about religion and religious attachments?

Anthony Petro is an associate professor in the Department of Religion and in the Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies Program at Boston University. From 2020 to 2023, he was also BU’s Distinguished Teaching Professor, a chair endowed by the National Endowment for the Humanities, which allowed him to found BU’s Health Humanities Project.

This is the final event in our series “Reverent Irreverence: Parody, Religion, and Contemporary Politics.”

As the counterculture of the 1960s churned, Harvard theologian Harvey Cox wrote of the dawning of a new religious sensibility reliant on “conscious play and comic equivocation.”Amid “dead gods” and “museum churches,” Cox suggested that laughter was religion’s last hope.Parody was the potential vehicle of its rebirth. Our program series on “Reverent Irreverence” digs into those paradoxical conjunctions and ironic possibilities. How does religious parody, satire, or humor become serious, solemn, or sincere? How does a camp aesthetic intersect with the arts of dissent and protest among environmentalist, feminist, and LGBTQ+ communities? What makes such parodies so dangerous, blasphemous, or obscene—so politically charged amid the nation’s endless culture wars? Are the comic effects of such performances, however serious, ultimately a jest for liberal secularism? Please join us for a series of events this spring to explore the profound play among parody, religion, and contemporary American politics.

This event is free and open to all, no tickets required. General admission seating—first come, first served. Doors will open at 4:00 p.m. We hope you will join us for a reception immediately following the conversation.

Visitor parking in the Danforth University Center (DUC) underground garage or the Millbrook parking facility is free after 5:00 p.m. in all yellow spaces (parking in red spaces will be ticketed). Parking passes or vouchers are not required. You will pull a ticket upon entry to the garage, which you will need for a no-fee exit of the garage when you depart. More information and campus maps are available at: https://parking.wustl.edu/.

Please contact our office at rap@wustl.edu or (314) 935-9345 if you have any questions or would like to share accessibility needs.

We are unable to offer a livestream of this event, but will archive a recording on our website for future viewing.