First Name * Last Name * Email * I most closely identify as * Community Alumni Alumni Volunteer Student Student Volunteer Faculty/Staff If you are a UNC Charlotte graduate, what year did you graduate? Submit The Phillips Lecture Series was established in 1987 by the United Religious Ministry in honor of Dwight L. Phillips (1905-1973), a leading Charlotte developer and contractor. The series is hosted by the Department of Religious Studies, which is housed within the College of Humanities & Earth and Social Sciences (CHESS). All are welcome to these engaging talks. Admission is free. Tuesday, October 20  Halton Reading Room (Atkins Library) Talk followed by Q&A begins at 5:30 p.m. (60 min) Light reception begins at 4:45 p.m. Speaker: Anthony Petro, Ph.D. Title: “Provoking Religion: Sex, Art, and the Aesthetics of Literalism” How should we read contemporary art dealing with religion, gender, and sexuality? During the U.S. culture wars of the 1980s and 1990s, conservative Christian leaders frequently attacked feminist and queer art that borrowed from Christian visual culture, labeling it blasphemous or pornographic. This talk examines this ideological clash through the 1990 legal battle between queer artist David Wojnarowicz and Methodist minister-turned-activist Donald Wildmon of the American Family Association, who had cropped and recontextualized Wojnarowicz’s imagery in an anti-NEA pamphlet. By analyzing their debate over sacrilege and censorship, this paper uses their court case to theorize an “aesthetics of literalism” driving the Christian Right’s approach to interpreting contemporary art. Biography: Anthony Petro is Associate Professor of American Studies at the University of Notre Dame who specializes in U.S. Religious History.