JENNIFER JOANNE RYCENGA

JENNIFER JOANNE RYCENGA

San Jose State University Department of Religious Studies

One Washington Square Phone: (408) 924-5740

San Jose, CA 95192-0121 jrycenga@earthlink.net

408-924-1367 (work) 408-924-4372 (fax)
EDUCATION

Ph.D., Religion and the Arts, 1992: Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California.

M.A., Religious Studies, 1984: Sacred Heart University, Fairfield, Connecticut.

M.Mus., Music Composition, 1981: University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

B.A., 1980: Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut (Magna cum laude).

ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS

San José State University, San José, California. Spring 1995 - present. Professor in Comparative Religious Studies. Courses include "Religion in America," "Religion and Political Controversy in the United States," "Pagan Traditions," "Music and Religious Experience," "Gender, Sexuality and Religion," "Women and Religion," "Ethics, Religion and Conflict in the United States," "Western Religions," "Literature and Religion," "Hindu Traditions," "Introduction to the Study of Religion," and the Senior Seminar (topics include “American Religious Creativity,” “War and Peace in the World’s Religions” and "Radical Critiques and Radical Uses of Religion in the Nineteenth Century"). Team-taught in Creative Arts Program, "Arts in American Society." Taught upper-division writing course, "Writing for the Humanities." Taught in Women’s Studies Program, “Lesbian History and Culture” and “The Study of Women.” Served as Coordinator of Women’s Studies Program, Fall 2004-Summer 2006. Served on Master’s committees in Interdisciplinary Studies, History, Women's Studies, Art History, and RTVF/Theatre Arts.

Pomona College, Claremont, California. 1990-1994. Visiting Assistant Professor in Religious Studies. Courses offered included: "World Religions," "Theories of Religion," "Introduction to Women's Studies," "Religion and Music in India," "Women, Religion and the Arts," "Mysticism," "Philosophia: Ontology and Spirituality of Women Thinkers," "Feminist Critiques, Reforms, and Creations of Religions" and "Epic, Religion and Women's Responses." Also directed independent studies on South Indian Literature, Epics of India, Lesbian Theory, Lesbian Poetry, Lesbian Culture, Cross-Cultural Healing, Contemporary Women Writers of India, and Feminist Utopias/Dystopias. Directed senior theses in Religious Studies and in Women's Studies.
Sacred Heart University, Fairfield, Connecticut. Summers 1988-1990, 1992-1998. Lecturer, Religious Studies Department, for “Mysticism,” “Religion in New England,” “Religion in America,” “Religion and the Arts,” “Comparative Religion,” and “Women in World Religions.”

Institute for Gay and Lesbian Education, West Hollywood, California. 1992-1994. Affiliated Faculty for classes and guest lectures on "Gays and Lesbians in World Religious History."

San José State University, San José, California. Spring 1990. Lecturer in the Religious Studies Program. Taught "Western Religious Traditions."
University of California, Berkeley. 1987-1989. Instructor for "Women and Religion" and "The Traditions of Religion." Teaching Assistant for "New Currents in Religious Studies," "Introduction to Religious Traditions" and "The Experience of Religion."
Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California. 1986-1987. Instructor for "Music and Religion." Teaching Assistant for "Worship and the Arts" at the Pacific School of Religion.

PUBLICATIONS

Edited Books:
Queering the Popular Pitch, co-edited with Sheila Whiteley. New York: Routledge, 2006.
Frontline Feminisms: Women, War and Resistance. co-edited with Marguerite Waller. New York: Garland Press, 2000. paperback edition, published New York: Routledge, 2001.

Book Chapters:
"Is This Desire?: Queering Large-scale Form in Rock Music." in Queering Popular Music, ed. Sheila Whiteley and Jennifer Rycenga. New York: Routledge, 2006. pages 235-247.

“Queerly Amiss: Sexuality and the Logic of Adorno’s Dialectics.” in Adorno: A Critical Reader, ed. Nigel Gibson and Andrew Rubin. Oxford UK: Blackwell, 2002. pages 361-378.

“Tales of Change within the Sound: Form, Lyrics, and Philosophy in the Music of Yes.” in Progressive Rock Reconsidered, ed. Kevin Holm-Hudson. New York: Routledge, 2001. pages 143-166.

“‘Dropping in for the Holidays:’ Christmas as Commercial and Evangelical Ritual at the Precious Moments Chapel.” in God in the Details: American Religion in Popular Culture, ed. Katherine McCarthy and Eric Mazur, New York: Routledge, 2000. pages 139-153.

“Maria Stewart, Black Abolitionist, and the Idea of Freedom.” in Frontline Feminisms:Women, War and Conflict, ed. Marguerite Waller and Jennifer Rycenga, New York: Garland, 2000. pages 297-324. (paperback, New York: Routledge, 2001.)

"The Perils and Pleasures of Being an Out Lesbian Academic; or, Speech from the Scaffold." in Lesbians in Academia, ed. Beth Mintz and Esther Rothblum. New York: Routledge, 1997. pages 171-179.

"Sisterhood: A Loving Lesbian Ear Listens to Progressive Heterosexual Women's Rock Music." in Keeping Score: Music, Disciplinarity, Culture., eds. David Schwarz, Lawrence Siegel, and Anahid Kassabian. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1997. pages 204-228.

"Clearly God Intended Polemics to be Threadbare: Some Christian Theological Justifications for Monogamy and Polygyny." Breaking the Barriers to Desire: New Approaches to Multiple Relationships, ed. Kevin Lano and Claire Parry. London: Five Leaves Publications, 1995. pages 87-106.
"Lesbian Compositional Process: One Lover-Composer's Perspective." in Queering the Pitch: The New Gay and Lesbian Musicology., eds. Philip Brett, Elizabeth Woods, Gary Thomas. New York: Routledge, 1994. pages 275-296.
Journal Articles:

"A Greater Awakening: Women's Intellect as a Factor in Early Abolitionist Movements, 1824-1834." Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 21:2:31-59 (Fall 2005).
“Anguished Shouts and Religious Echoes: Octavia Butler’s Kindred in the Religious Studies Classroom.” Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts 11:2:185-189 (Winter 2000).
"Passionate Struggle is Not an Intuition: An Argument and Appreciation of Mary Daly." Feminist Theology: The Journal of the Britain and Ireland Chapter of Feminist Theology, Volume 24: May 2000: 31-35.

"Mary Daly: Grand Agitator and Revolting Hag" co-written, with Carol Anderson, as introduction to articles on Daly in Feminist Theology: The Journal of the Britain and Ireland Chapter of Feminist Theology, Volume 24: May 2000: 9-12.
"The Uncovering of Ontology in Music: Speculative and Conceptual Feminist Compositions" Repercussions, Spring/Summer 1994, 3:1:22-46.

Encyclopedia Articles:
“Elizabeth Cady Stanton.” Encyclopedia of Religion. New York: Macmillan, 2004.


“Religion, Spirituality, and Popular Music.” Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World, Volume One, ed. John Shepherd. London: Cassell, 2003. 338-345.
"The Influence of Asian Religious Thought on Avant-Garde Jazz and Classical Music in the United States and Canada." Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, Volume Three, ed. Ellen Koskoff, New York: Garland, 2001. 129-133.
"Crossroads," "Music," "Seclusion," and "Silence." Encyclopedia of Women and World Religion, ed. Serinity Young. New York: Macmillan Reference, 1999. Crossroads: I. 224-226; Music: II. 687-690; Seclusion: II. 875-878; Silence: II. 907-908.

Occasional Papers
“Guru Nanak and Religious Diversity,” in Second Annual Guru Nanak Lecture Series, Punjabi Studies Program, San José State University, Winter 2004.

Reviews and Short Essays:
“The Influence of Asian Religious Ideas on American Music.” In Music Cultures in the United States: An Introduction, ed. Ellen Koskoff. New York: Routledge, 2005. pages 97-100. This is a textbook version of the article by the same title in the Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, Volume 3.

"Roundtable Discussion: What is the Future of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Studies in Religion?" Culture and Religion 5:2 (2004): 267-281.

Review of Touchdown Jesus by R. Laurence Moore, in Religion and Popular Culture, volume VII: Summer 2004. on-line journal: http://www.usask.ca/relst/jrpc/br7-touchdownjesus.html.
Review of Traces of the Spirit: The Religious Dimensions of Popular Music by Robin Sylvan, in Religion and Popular Culture, volume VI: Spring 2004. on-line journal: http://www.usask.ca/relst/jrpc/br6-tracesofspirit.html.
“Passionate Gratitude,” in theGay/Lesbian Study Group (American Musicological Association) Newsletter, 14:1:5-6 (Spring 2004).

Review of Poetry, Prose and Art in the American Social Gospel Movement, 1880-1910 by John C. Waldmeir, in Religion and Popular Culture, volume V: Fall 2003. on-line journal: http://www.usask.ca/relst/jrpc/br5-poetryandprose-print.html.

Review of Border Crossings: Christian Trespasses on Popular Culture and Public Affairs by Rodney Clapp, in Religion and Popular Culture, volume III: Spring 2003. on-line journal:
Review of With God on Their Side: Sport in the Service of Religion edited by Tara Magdalinski and Timothy J.L. Chandler, in Religion and Popular Culture, volume II, Fall 2002. on-line journal: .
Review of Nineteenth-Century Writings on Homosexuality: A Sourcebook, edited by Chris White, in The Lesbian Review of Books, Fall 2000, 7:1:27.

Review of Reclaiming the Spiritual in Art: Contemporary Cross-Cultural Perspectives, edited by Dawn Perlmutter and Debra Koppman, Journal of the American Academy of Religion Summer 2000, 68:2:439-442.

Review-essay of Is This Desire?, by P.J. Harvey (musical album) in theGay/Lesbian Study Group (American Musicological Association) Newsletter, 10:1:8-10 (Spring 2000).
Review of Coming Out as a Sacrament by Chris Glaser, The Lesbian Review of Books Winter 1999-2000, 6:2:7-8.

Review of The Global Emergence of Gay and Lesbian Politics edited by Barry Adam, Jan Willem Duyvendak and André Krouwel, The Lesbian Review of Books Winter 1999-2000, 6:2:22-23.

Review of Diary of a Shirtmaker by Edith Simcox, The Lesbian Review of Books, Spring 1999, 5:3:12-13.
Review of We Are Everywhere, edited by Shane Phalen and Mark Blasius, The Lesbian Review of Books, Summer 1998, 4:4:33-34.

Review of Just Good Friends by Elizabeth Stuart, The Lesbian Review of Books, Fall 1997, 4:1:20.
Review of When the Drummers Were Women by Lane Redmond, in the Gay and Lesbian Study Group (American Musicological Association) Newsletter, Fall 1997.

Review of The Sound of the Dove by Beverly Bush Patterson, American Music, Fall 1996, 14:3:384-387.
Review of Lesbians Talk Left Politics, The Lesbian Review of Books, Winter 1995, 2:2:6-7.
Review of Sisters, Sexperts, Queers by Arlene Stein, The Lesbian Review of Books, Winter 1994, 1:2:22.

Review of All American Music: Composition in the Late Twentieth Century by John Rockwell, Sacred Heart University Review, Fall 1983/Spring 1984, 4:1&2:34-38.
PUBLICATIONS IN PREPARATION

Books:

A Life of Opposition: Prudence Crandall and Women's Religious Choices. book proposal under development for winter 2005.

Ear Religion: The Composer as a Religious Person. book proposal under development for submission spring 2005.

Articles:

"Fighting Back: Women's Revolutionary Thought in Gage, Simcox, and Engels." Article accepted for inclusion in That Word is Liberty: The Feminist Influence of Matilda Joslyn Gage. co-editing with Carol Anderson.
Editing:
That Word is Liberty: The Feminist Influence of Matilda Joslyn Gage. co-editing with Carol Anderson. Book manuscript under review, summer 2005.

Free Thinking for the Long Haul: Writings of Emily Culpepper. co-editing with Emily Culpepper. Book proposal under development for submission fall 2005.
Sexualities and Knowledges. co-editing with Marguerite Waller and Alicia Arrizón. Editing for fall 2005 submission.

Mary Daly Reader. Co-editing with Mary Hunt and Hye-Sook Hwang. Editing for fall 2005 submission.
Encyclopedia Articles:
“Prudence Crandall,” “Maria Stewart,” “Elizabeth Heyrick,” “Benjamin Lundy,” and “Quakers and Anti-Slavery.” Encyclopedia of Abolition and Anti-Slavery, edited Peter Hinks, forthcoming 2005.

Reviews and Short Essays:
Review of Queering Creole Traditions, by Randy Connor and David Sparks, in American Folklorist, forthcoming Winter 2005-06

Review Essay on theme of Same-Sex Marriage, Religious Studies Review, forthcoming 2007.

"Cosmology Hopping: Engaging and Avoiding Controversy in the Religious Studies Classroom," in "Spotlight on Teaching," Cynthia Humes, editor, in Religious Studies News, forthcoming Fall 2006.

FELLOWSHIPS

Fall 2000-Spring 2001 - Five College Women’s Studies Research Center, Mt. Holyoke, South Hadley, Massachussetts. Research Associate at the center, for work on Prudence Crandall.
Summer 1999-Fall 2000 - The Creole Religious Imagination in America. One of eight participants in two working conferences (Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York, June 1999, and Yale University Institute for the Advanced Study of Religion, December 2000).

Spring 1997-Winter 1999 - Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture, Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis. One of eight participants competitively selected for the Young Scholars in American Religion Program, sessions for Religious Studies Scholars.

Fall 1994 - University of California Humanities Institute, University of California, Irvine. Resident Fellow in the "Re-theorizing Music" project.
PAPERS PRESENTED

"Prudence Crandall: Innocous Icon or Subversive Goad?" Heroism, Nationalism and Human Rights Conference, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT (February 2006).
“In the Footsteps of Prudence Crandall.” Prudence Crandall Museum, Canterbury, CT (May 2005).
“Religion and Authority at Home: White Abolitionist Women and Marriage.” American Academy of Religion, Western Region Meeting, Tempe, Arizona (March 2005).
"Prudence Crandall in Illinois: A Study of Structural Exclusion and Personal Barriers in Women’s Abolitionist Activism.” Conference on Illinois History, Springfield, Illinois (October 2004)

“The Same Situation: Joni Mitchell and the Women’s Liberation Movement.” Joni Mitchell Symposium, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada (October 2004).
"Abolitionists, Spiritualists, and Exodusters: The Mythic Aura of Kansas in the Late Nineteenth-Century." American Academy of Religion, National Meeting, Atlanta, GA (November 2003); Western Region Meeting, Davis, CA (March 2003).
"Is This Desire?: Queering Large-scale Form in Rock Music." Feminist Theory and Music VII, Bowling Green, Ohio (July 2003).

"Queering the Pitch, Queering the Practice: Plenary Panel Discussion." International Association for the Study of Popular Music, Montreal, Quebec, Canada (July 2003).
"Defying Injustice: Prudence Crandall's Abolitionist Struggle and Her Contemporary Relevance." Connecticut College, New London, CT (April 2003); Prudence Crandall Museum, Canterbury, CT (May 2003).

"Counter-memory and Counter-telos: A Response to Ann Burlein's Lift High the Cross." panel presentation, American Academy of Religion, Annual Meeting, Toronto, Ontario, Canada (November 2002).

“Impulses, Inclinations, Passions: Historical Considerations Toward a Dialectics of Revolution and Sexuality.” Sexualities and Knowledges Conference, University of California, Riverside (February 2002).

"Feathered Immanence: Thoughts on the Work of Lynda Sexson.” panel presentation, American Academy of Religion, Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (November 2001).
"Endless Caresses: Musical Form as Queer Exuberance in the Music of Yes." Society for Music Theory, Philadelphia, PA (November 2001).

"A Greater Awakening: Women's Intellect in the Transatlantic Abolitionist Movement, 1824-1834.” Sisterhood and Slavery: Transatlantic Antislavery and Women’s Rights Conference, Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance and Abolition, Yale University, New Haven CT (October 2001).

“Agitation as Education: Race, Religion and Class in the Pedagogy of Prudence Crandall.” Robert Leavens Lectureship, Mills College, Oakland, CA (February 2001); Five College Women’s Studies Center, Mt. Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA (February 2001); Yale University Institute for Advanced Study of Religion, New Haven, CT (March 2001); Sacred Heart University, Fairfield, CT (April 2001); Montana State University, Bozeman, MT (July 2001); University of California, San Diego, Women’s Center (February 2002).
“Goading Philosophia: Inter-generational Continuity and Nagging Questions in Lesbian-Feminist Thought.” American Academy of Religion, Annual Meeting, Nashville, TN (November 2000).

"The Mythology of Music, Knowledge and Sexuality: The Hidden Image of Sarasvati in Two Karnatic Kritis." University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill NC (March 2001); University of California, Riverside (January 2001); Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY (October 2000), American Academy of Religion, Western Region, Claremont, CA (March 1998), and Society for Ethnomusicology, Annual Meeting, Seattle WA (October 1992).

Presider and Discussant for screening of Deepa Mehta’s film Fire. American Academy of Religion, Annual Meeting, Boston, Massachusetts (November 1999).
“Philosophy in Place of Religion: Edith Simcox's Nineteenth Century Proto-Lesbian Critique and Creation of Cosmology in Natural Law.” Annual 18th- and 19th-Century British Women Writers Conference, Lawrence KS (March 2001); American Academy of Religion, Western Region, San Francisco, CA (March 1999).
“To the Left and Over the Barricades: the Legacy of Queer Leftist Thinkers.” Midwest Bisexual, Lesbian, Gay, Transgender College Conference, Madison, WI (February 1999).
Panelist and Presider, “Lesbian-Feminist Utopian and Dystopian Visions: Future and Past.” American Academy of Religion, Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (November 1998).
“Fighting Back: Women's Revolutionary Thought in the Writings of Gage and Simcox.” Matilda Jocelyn Gage centenary conference, Kalamazoo, MI (October 1998).
“The Fetish Returns: Religious Commodities to the Left and to the Right.” Northern California Women’s Caucus in Religious Studies Symposium, Berkeley, CA (April 1998).
“The Embodied and the Metaphoric,” a response to Joseph Runzo’s “The Symbolism of Sex and the Reality of God.” Presented at the “Gender and Love in the World’s Religions” Conference, Chapman University, Orange, CA (April 1998).
Panelist, “Religion, Idealism, and the Method of Dialectical Materialism in the context of the 150th Anniversary of the Communist Manifesto.” Symposium on the Relevance Today of the Communist Manifesto, New College, San Francisco, CA (May 1998)
“The Telling of Racism: On Line Narratives for Changing and Healing.” co-presented with Cecelia Baldwin. University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA (June 1997).
"A Noisy Century: Revolutionary Creativity and its Feedback Loop." Unnatural Acts Conference, Riverside, CA (April 1997).

"Gender and/at the Crossroads; or, What's Sacred About the Intersection of I-10 and I-15?" American Academy of Religion, Western Region, Berkeley, CA (March 1997).
"In the Interstices between Battles: Antigone Calls to Maria Stewart." Frontline Feminisms: Women, War and Resistance Conference, Riverside, CA (January 1997); Pomona College, Claremont, CA (March 1997); California State University, Los Angeles (April 1997).

"Queer Notion: The Idea of Freedom and Homosexual Self-Definition in the Nineteenth Century." University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill NC (March 2001); University of California Los Angeles, LGBT Studies Program (February 2001); Rethinking Marxism Conference, Amherst, MA (December 1996); Pomona College, Claremont (March 1997).

"Joni Mitchell's Court and Spark as a Sonic Document of the Women's Liberation Movement." Society for Ethnomusicology National Meeting, Toronto, Ontario (October 1996).

"'Pagan Traditions' as a New Pedagogical Rubric for a Family of Religious Traditions." American Academy of Religion, Western Regional Meeting, San Diego, CA (March 1996).
“Form, Sound, and Spirit in Beethoven’s Cello Sonata Op. 102, No. 2.” Scripps College Symposium on Music in American Life, Claremont, CA (October 1995).

“Expressions of Sexuality and Physicality: American and British Women Rock Musicians.” Scripps College Symposium on Music in American Life, Claremont, CA (October 1995).
"Infinitesimal Infinitudes: Points of Chaos and Insight in Women's Spirituality." National Women's Studies Association, Norman OK (June 1995).

"You've No Way of Knowing: Philosophic Traditions and Physical Experience in the Poetic Epistemology of Mahadeviakka," Asian Studies Association Conference, Claremont, CA (October 1994), and American Academy of Religion, Western Regional Meeting, Redlands CA (March 1995).

"Raya Dunayevskaya's Reading of Hegel: Creativity, Chaos, and the Dialectics of the Plunge." Los Angeles, CA (December 1994).

"Multiple Mysticisms/Bunched Epistemologies," Study of Mysticism Conference, Binghamton, NY (October 1994).
"Retheorizing Music" Panelist, American Musicological Society, Minneapolis, MN (October 1994).
"Are the Categories Clear or Queer?: the Lack of Queer Perspectives in the Sociology of Religion," American Sociological Association, National Meeting, Los Angeles, CA (August 1994).

"Bunched Epistemologies: Mysticism and the Ineffability of the (Queer) Body." Philosophy of Religion and Theology Colloquium, Claremont Graduate School, Claremont, CA (April 1994).

"Moments Surrounding Action: Musical Compositions" American Academy of Religion, Western Regional Meeting, Santa Clara, CA (March 1994).

"Philosophy on the Campus and in the Streets." Roundtable discussion with workers and intellectuals. Conference on "Politics, Theory, and the Place of the Academy," Los Angeles, CA (March 1994).

"The Spirituality of Sound and the Myth of John Cage." Cage in Claremont Symposium, November 1993, and at Long Beach Opera, Long Beach, CA (November 1993).
"Religious Homophobia: Political Action Strategies" Presider/Moderator, Lesbian Feminist Issues in Religion, American Academy of Religion, National Meeting, Washington DC (November 1993).

"A Mysticism of the Body: Audre Lorde's "Uses of the Erotic." Audre Lorde Symposium, sponsored by Office of Black Student Affairs, Claremont University Center, Claremont, CA (October 1993).

"Beyond Dichotomies in Lesbian Radical Politics." West Coast Socialist Conference, University of California, Los Angeles, CA (April 1993).

"Out in the Classroom: Lesbian-Feminist Issues in the Religion Classroom," Organizer, Moderator, and Panelist, American Academy of Religion, Western Regional Meeting, Fullerton CA (March 1993).

"Transcendentalism as a Religio-Aesthetic Strategy in Ives' Second String Quartet." Conference on "Music, Politics, and the Transcendental Strain: 1900-1920" Berkeley CA (April 1992).

"Musico-Philosophic Parameters of the Tyagaraja Kriti "Mokshamu galada." Society for Ethnomusicology Southern California Chapter, Dominguez Hills, CA (March 1992).
"The Religio-Aesthetic-Eclectic Tradition in American Music." American Academy of Religion, Western Region, Los Angeles, CA (March 1991).

"Politics and Spirituality in the Theory and Practice of Ornette Coleman's Improvisation." Society for Ethnomusicology/American Musicological Society/Society for Music Theory, Combined Annual Meeting, Oakland, CA (November 1990).
"Feminist Spiritual Philosophy and the Materiality of Music." American Academy of Religion, Western Region Meeting, Oakland, CA (March 1990).
"Composed Speech: Parallels in Musical and Linguistic Expression by Composers." Society for Ethnomusicology, Northern California Chapter Meeting, Hayward, CA. (February 1990).
"Self-Mythologizing by Contemporary Composers." American Academy of Religion, Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL (November 1988).

"Who is the Composer? Intention and Self-Perception in the Compositional Process." Society for Ethnomusicology, Northern California Chapter Meeting, Santa Cruz, CA (April 1988).

"Sound, Space, Time, Stillness: Musical Experience and Religious Expression." American Academy of Religion, Western Region Meeting, San José, CA (March 1988).
"Devotion and Union: Text/Music Paradigms in South India." Society for Ethnomusicology, National Meeting, Ann Arbor, MI (November 1987).

"Filling the Available Space: Extremes of Dynamics and Meditational Tendencies in Western Contemporary Music." American Academy of Religion, Atlanta GA (November 1986).
"Plotinus and the Perennial Philosophy in the Essays of Ananda K. Coomaraswamy." American Academy of Religion, Annual Meeting, Anaheim, CA (November 1985).
LECTURES

“Guru Nanak and Religious Diversity.” Talk at Guru Nanak Day, sponsored by the Punjabi Studies Program, San José State University (October 2004).

Panelist, post-production discussion on tolerance, The Laramie Project. San José State University, Theatre Program (October 2004).
Moderator and Presenter, "Children of a Greater God: Embracing Different Spiritualities." Panel on affirming participation of les-bi-gay people in institutional religion. Southwestern University, Georgetown, TX (February 2003).
"Ignite the Fires of Female Furies: Its Time for Feminist-Assisted Deicide!" organizer and panelist, extra session featuring Mary Daly at the American Academy of Religion National Meeting, Toronto, Ontario, Canada (November 2002).
“The Future of LGBT/Q Religious Studies.” Roundtable participant in closing plenary discussion, Queer Visions in the Americas conference, University of California at Santa Barbara (May 2002).

“Combating Violence: Frontline Feminisms Presentation.” Midnight Special Bookstore, Santa Monica CA (February 2001); University of California Riverside (February 2001); Claremont Graduate University Women and Religion program (February 2001).
"Teaching 'Religion in America'." Panelist, Yale Northeast Regional Faculty Conference on Religion and American History, New Haven, CT (December 2000).

“Pagan Traditions and Nature-Based Religions.” Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Los Gatos (October 1999).

“Transcending Hate Crimes: Building Coalitions.” Mosaic Multi-cultural Center, San José State University (October 1999).

“Women in Hinduism and Islam.” First Presbyterian Church, Palo Alto, California (January 1999).
Panel Respondent, concerning "Liberalism and Religious Conviction" (paper given by Stanley Fish). University of California, Riverside. (April, 1995).
"Lesbian Ethics." in "Contemporary Moral Issues" class, Mount St. Mary's College, Chalon Campus, Los Angeles (April 1993); also in "Contemporary Ethics" class, California State University at Northridge (March 1994); also at the Orange County Chapter of Integrity (Episcopalian Gay/Lesbian Organization), Huntington Beach, CA (May 1994); also in "Ethics, Conflict, and Religion" class, San José State University (October 1995).

"Dimensions of Native American Religions," presentation at California 3 R's project, Santa Clara County Board of Education, (March 1995).

"Transcendentalism as a Religio-Aesthetic Strategy in Ives' Second String Quartet." University of California, Riverside, Music Department Series on Music and Interdisciplinary Explorations (May 1992).

"'It Don't Matter'?: A Discussion of Michael Jackson's "Black or White"." Panelist at this discussion: Pomona College (February 1992), Society for Ethnomusicology Southern California Chapter (March 1992), California State University at Dominguez Hills (April 1992), and at the International Society for the Study of Popular Music, Annual Meeting, Ft. Worth, TX (October 1992).
"Creativity as Spirituality in Contemporary Lesbian Arts." About Productions, Lambda Alumnae and the Gay and Lesbian Association of UCLA panel on "Hidden (not Hiding from) History." UCLA, Los Angeles, California. (April 1991).
"Women and the Language of War." Greens Party Meeting, Claremont, CA (April 1991).
"Indian Aesthetics." University of California, Berkeley. (March 1986).
"The Thought of Plotinus." San José State University. (December 1985).
PROFESSIONAL SOCIETIES

American Academy of Religion: National. Co-chair of Lesbian-Feminist Issues and Religion Group, 1997-2003, Steering Committee member, Lesbian-Feminist Issues and Religion, 1992-1996, 2003-present.
American Academy of Religion: Western Region. President, 2006-2007. Vice-President and Program Chair, 2005-2006. Member of AAR/WR board, representing Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual Concerns, 1997-2000. Chair, Nineteenth-century Section, 2006-present. Co-Chair of Religion and the Arts section, 2001-2003. Co-chair of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Studies and Religion section, 1998-2001. Student Representative, Executive Committee, AAR/Western Region, 1988-1989.

Society for Ethnomusicology: National and Northern California Chapters. Representative, Committee on Student Concerns, 1987-1988. Secretary, Northern California Chapter, 1987-1988.

Northern California Women’s Caucus for Religious Studies Scholars, Co-organizer, 1997-1998.
Philip Brett Prize Committee, Gay and Lesbian Caucus, American Musicological Society, 1998-2002; chair 2000-2002.
HONORS AND AWARDS

Listed in Marquis’ Who’s Who Among American Women, 1999-present; The Musical Woman: An International Perspective, Vol. 2: 1984-1985, the International Encyclopedia of Women Composers, second edition, 1987, and International Who's Who in Music, 1989.

ADMINISTRATIVE EXPERIENCE

Coordinator, Women’s Studies, San José State University, June 2004 forward.

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE
San José State University: University-wide

AIDS/HIV Committee, January 1995-May 1997.

Campus Climate Committee, Executive Sub-committee, September 1997 forward.

Co-organizer for October 1996 campus appearance of Jesse Jackson, Dolores Heurta, and Eleanor Smeal; organizer for November 1997 campus appearance of Sarah White and Georgiana Williams; organizer for November 1998 campus appearance of Peter Hudis; organizer for April 1999 campus appearance of Harry Hay; organizer for February 2000 campus appearance of Barbara Smith.

Executive Board, March 1995-May 2000, California Faculty Association, San José State Chapter.

Faculty Advisor, Queer Revolution, January 1999-May 2000.

Gay and Lesbian Faculty and Staff Association (GALFSA), chair, July 1995-December 1997; Steering Committee, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Faculty and Staff, January 1998-May 1999.

Mosaic Multi-cultural Center Advisory Board, January 1999 forward.

Mosaic Multi-cultural Center Affiliated Faculty, June 1999 forward.

Multi-cultural Center Task Force, September 1997 - May 1998.

Search Committee for Vice-President for Student Affairs, November 1996-May 1997.

San José State University: College of Humanities and Arts:

Sabbatical Leave Committee, College of Humanities and the Arts, August 2003-May 2004

Curriculum Committee, College of Humanities and the Arts, September 1998-May 1999.

Educational Equity Committee, September 1996-August 1997, College of Arts and Humanities.
San José State University: College of Social Science:

Research Grants Committee, College of Social Science, August 2004-May 2005.

Sabbatical Leaves Committee, College of Social Science, August 2005-December 2005.

San José State University: Humanities Department and Comparative Religious Studies Program:

Curricular Forum on Diversity, Religious Studies Representative, September 1997-October 1998.

Curriculum Committee, Humanities Department, September 1997-May 1999, August 2003-present; chair, AY 1998-1999.

Diversity Workshop Co-ordinator, Humanities Department, AY 96-97, and online facilitator for Journalism Department’s Diversity Workshop, February-May 1997.

General Education Course Coordinator for "Religion in America," "Religion and Political Controversy in the United States," and "Arts in United States' Society," 1999 forward.

Retention, Tenure and Promotion Committee, AY 2001-2003.

Search Committee, American Studies Program, AY 1999-2000.

Search Committee, Liberal Studies Program, AY 2003-2004.

Search Committee, Comparative Religious Studies and American Studies, AY 2004-2005.

San José State University: Social Science Department and Women's Studies Program:

Coordinator, Women's Studies Program, July 2004-July 2006.

Chair, Search Committee, Women's Studies Program, September 2005-March 2006.

Reviewer for Manuscripts:

Reviewed for Signs; Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion; Hypatia; Ethnomusicology; American Music; Race, Class and Gender; Religion and Popular Culture; University of California Press; Prentice Hall; Scholar’s Press; Columbia University Press.

MUSIC ACTIVITIES

Composition: Over 100 chamber and orchestral works written and performed.

Recent performances:

“Retrodrophetity” for piano and four melody instruments. Evan Ziporyn, Dan Plonsey, and others, Yale University, New Haven, CT (April 1998); “Moments Hardly Seen” for violin and piano, Anne Pagliarulo, piano, Lisa Golding, violin, San Francisco, CA (October 1997); "Moments Surrounding Action" for solo viola, Patty Whelan, viola, Santa Clara, CA (March 1994); "Reinventing the Burning" for piano, Nick Reveles, piano, San Diego, CA (October 1993); Participant in Orchestral Reading Session for the Women's Philharmonic (Spring 1990); Co-founder of the Composers' Cafeteria and Ovaryaction, two new music ensembles in the San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley area, 1985-1990

References: given on request

version of 2006

Rycenga: CV page