Gillian Frank

Stevens Institute of Technology, Foundations Program, Faculty Member

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My research on the intersections of gender, sexuality, race, religion and popular culture has appeared in places like The Journal of the History of Sexuality, Gender and History and The Journal of Religion and Popular Culture.

I am editor of a recent edited volume, Devotions and Desires: Histories of Sexuality and Religion in the 20th Century United States (UNC Press 2018).

My teaching engages the historical meanings of race, gender and sexuality and how it has connected with culture and politics in the modern United States.

I am at work on a project called A Sacred Choice: Liberal Religion and Reproductive Rights before Roe v Wade. This book explores the religious, legal, medical and transnational history of abortion reform activism and illegal abortion services. The project focuses on the Clergy Consultation Service, the single largest abortion referral service in the United States before Roe v Wade. This group, made up of liberal Protestant ministers, Jewish rabbis and dissident Catholic nuns and priests, organized in forty states and over fifty cities to lobby for the repeal of abortion laws, challenge Catholic anti-abortion activists and to assist women obtain safe abortions.
Address: Princeton, New Jersey, United States

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Devotions and Desires: Histories of Sexuality and Religion in the Twentieth Century United States

by Gillian Frank, Heather R White, and Bethany Moreton

At a moment when “freedom of religion” rhetoric fuels public debate, it is easy to assume that se... more At a moment when “freedom of religion” rhetoric fuels public debate, it is easy to assume that sex and religion have faced each other in pitched battle throughout modern U.S. history. Yet, by tracking the nation’s changing religious and sexual landscapes over the twentieth century, this book challenges that zero-sum account of sexuality locked in a struggle with religion. It shows that religion played a central role in the history of sexuality in the United States, shaping sexual politics, communities, and identities. At the same time, sexuality has left lipstick traces on American religious history. From polyamory to pornography, from birth control to the AIDS epidemic, this book follows religious faiths and practices across a range of sacred spaces: rabbinical seminaries, African American missions, Catholic schools, pagan communes, the YWCA, and much more. What emerges is the shared story of religion and sexuality and how both became wedded to American culture and politics.
The volume, framed by a provocative introduction by Gillian Frank, Bethany Moreton, and Heather R. White and a compelling afterword by John D’Emilio, features essays by Rebecca T. Alpert and Jacob J. Staub, Rebecca L. Davis, Lynne Gerber, Andrea R. Jain, Kathi Kern, Rachel Kranson, James P. McCartin, Samira K. Mehta, Daniel Rivers, Whitney Strub, Aiko Takeuchi-Demirci, Judith Weisenfeld, and Neil J. Young.

Gillian Frank

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