Melissa M. Wilcox is Professor and Holstein Family and Community Chair of Religious Studies at the University of California, Riverside. She is the author of Queer Women and Religious Individualism, winner of the 2010 Book Award of the ASA’s Sociology of Religion Section.
An Xiao Mina is a technologist, writer, and artist whose work has been featured in the New York Times, the Economist, the Atlantic, and Hyperallergic. She was a research fellow at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, and she works at the technology nonprofit Meedan. The author of Memes to Movements, she splits her time between New York and California.
Nicole Zelniker (she/they) is the indie author of several books, including FROM WHERE WE ARE, which has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and the newly published ALL I KNOW SO FAR. She’s also the founder of Knee Brace Press, which is an online literary magazine devoted to stories about disability and mental health.
In her free time, Nicole enjoys re-reading her favorite books, talking about the intersection of queerness and chronic illness on the internet, and cuddling her formerly semi-feral tabby cat. You can keep up with them on TikTok at @nicolewritesbooks or Threads, Bluesky, and Instagram at @nicolezelniker.
Scott Kugle joins the Department of Middle Eastern and South Asian Studies in Fall 2010. He received his PhD from Duke University in 2000 in History of Religions after graduating from Swarthmore College with High Honors in Religion, Literature, and History. His dissertation, In Search of the Center: Authenticity, Reform and Critique in Early Modern Islamic Sainthood, examined Sufism in North Africa and South Asia. His fields of expertise include Sufism, Islamic society in South Asia, and issues of gender and sexuality. He is the author of four books and numerous articles, including Sufis and Saints' Bodies: Mysticism, Corporeality and Sacred Power in Islamic Culture (UNC Press, 2007) and Homosexuality in Islam: Critical Reflection on Gay, L
Ladelle McWhorter is the James Thomas Professor of Philosophy and Professor of the Women's, Gender, and Sexualities Studies Program at the University of Richmond. She is author of Bodies and Pleasures: Foucault and the Politics of Sexual Normalization (IUP, 1999).
Estelle Frankel is a practicing psychotherapist, spiritual advisor, and seasoned teacher of Jewish mysticism who blends depth psychology with the wisdom and healing practices of Kabbalah. She has taught Jewish studies in Israel and the U.S. for over 30 years and was ordained as a Rabbinic Pastor and spiritual guide (mashpiah ruchanit) by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi. While living in Israel from 1970-1978 Estelle attended the Michlalah College for Jewish Studies in Jerusalem and taught at several Yeshivas, including Neve Yerusyhalayim and Shapell (Beruriah). Estelle is currently on the teaching faculty of Chochmat Halev: Wisdom of the Heart Meditation Center, where she teaches Jewish mysticism, meditation and healing, and offers group spir
