Co-sponsored by Gerber Hart Library & Archives
Monday, March 16, 2026, 5:30 pm
First United Methodist Church/Chicago Temple
77 W. Washington Street, Chicago
Dixon Chapel, 2nd floor
In-person and livestreamed
REGISTER ON EVENTBRITE
The 2025-26 Virginia Ramey Mollenkott Award will be presented to:
Heather Rachelle White, PhD, is a visiting assistant professor in the gender and queer studies program at the University of Puget Sound. Trained in American religious history, Heather's research focuses on religion and LGBTQ movements for social change. The paper is part of a long-term research project into LGBTQ grassroots movements and space-sharing relationships with established churches, a project that was awarded a 2025 Project Grant for Researchers from the Louisville Institute. Heather is the author of Reforming Sodom: Protestants and the Rise of Gay Rights (University of North Carolina Press, 2015) and co-editor (with Gillian Frank and Bethany Moreton) of Devotions and Desires: Histories of Religion and Sexuality in the Twentieth Century United States. Heather serves on the advisory board of the LGBTQ Religious Archives Network, and is a steering committee member of the Queer Studies in Religion group of the American Academy of Religion.
Read news release here.
White will be interviewed by:
Monique Moultrie, PhD, is an associate professor of religious studies at Georgia State University where her scholarly pursuits include projects in sexual ethics, African American religions, and gender and sexuality studies. She earned a PhD from Vanderbilt University, a M.T.S. from Harvard Divinity School, and a BA from Duke University. Her research has been supported by a Harvard Divinity School Women’s Studies in Religion Program Fellowship, a Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship, an American Academy of Religion Individual Research Grant, several Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning grants, and a GSU Dean’s Early Career Award. She has published Hidden Histories: Faith & Black Lesbian Leadership (2023); Passionate and Pious: Religious Media and Black Women’s Sexuality (2017) and A Guide for Women in Religion (2014).
Other speakers include:
Erin Bell, MLIS, is an information science professional with more than seven years of service in the field. She is the operations director at the Gerber/Hart Library and Archives, after many years of volunteering. Erin is dedicated to accessible library service and passionate about archival preservation. She is a co-creator of the Gerber/Hart’s podcast “Unboxing Queer History.”
Lē Isaac Weaver is a nonbinary writer, musician, tech specialist, and feminist spiritual seeker. Their years of involvement with the Evangelical and Ecumenical Women’s Caucus (EEWC), an organization Virginia Ramey Mollenkott was involved in for nearly fifty years, facilitated a deeply meaningful friendship with Virginia. As content manager and web developer of Christian Feminism Today, EEWC’s online publication platform, and Virginia’s website administrator, Lē worked closely with Virginia in the last decade of her life.
Tags
Mollenkott, Virginia Ramey