Emma Cieslik

Emma Cieslik (she/her) is a queer, disabled religious scholar and museum worker based in Washington, DC. She studies the intersection of religion, gender and sexuality, and material culture. She founded and currently directs Queer and Catholic: A CLGS Oral History Project based out of the Pacific School of Religion.

Archive, Books, Sex/Gender/JusticeFebruary 7, 2025

Rebranded as ‘Biblical Counseling,’ Conversion Therapy is ‘a Colonizing Effort’ — A Q&A With The Author of ‘Shame-Sex Attraction’

By Emma Cieslik

Last December, the evangelical organization Alliance Defending Freedom filed a lawsuit challenging Colorado’s ban on…

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Archive, Culture, OMFGJanuary 7, 2025

‘Saint Luigi, Patron Saint of Healthcare Access for All’ — Enraged by Corporate Health Care Some View Assassin as a Folk Hero

By Emma Cieslik

When Luigi Mangione was arrested for the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson he had…

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(A)theologies, ArchiveJune 5, 2024

Amid Growing Legitimacy Challenges from its Right and Left, Vatican Seizes Control of the Supernatural — to Prevent ‘Abuses’

By Emma Cieslik

On May 17, the Vatican overhauled its process for evaluating and verifying supernatural phenomena, from…

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(A)theologies, Archive, Christian Nationalism, OMFG, Sex/Gender/JusticeDecember 18, 2023

‘Pure White’ Examines the White Supremacist Origins of Evangelical Purity Culture

By Emma Cieslik

Over the past few years purity culture has become a hot topic in the secular…

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Three church doors in a row, all shut.

Archive, Sex/Gender/JusticeNovember 1, 2023

As a Queer Catholic Woman I Had High Hopes Before the 2023 Catholic Synod on Synodality

By Emma Cieslik

When the summit on the future of the Catholic Church began on October 9, I…

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