Ithaca College

Professor Amanullah De Sondy, Assistant Professor of World Religions - Department of Philosophy and Religion, will speak at the 'Expanding the Circle: Creating an Inclusive Environment in Higher Education for LGBTQ Students and Studies in San Francisco, February 25-28th.  His invited presentation will focus on 'Negotiating Identities: Gender and Islam'.  This session will address the complexities of gendered Muslim identity formations in order to talk about diverse possibilities for embodying gender in Islam.  Proposing frameworks for inclusive approaches to the study and practice of Islam via explorations of Islamic masculinities, Professor De Sondy's key area of research.

The conference will not only address a variety of factors that have contributed to excluding lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) issues from academic study and student life; but will also explore strategies to make campuses more inclusive for all students. Through five preconference workshops and forty concurrent interactive sessions, a unique opportunity to examine strategies and best practices that effectively integrate LGBTQ areas of teaching and research with student life activities. This will be among the first national conferences in higher education to focus on LGBTQ concerns by seeking connections across academic and student affairs, across kinds of diversities, across disciplines, and across LGBTQ subfields.