Samuel Ernest

Sam is a third-year PhD student in theology and American religious history. He studies the theological lives of gay literature; relationships between theology, gay and lesbian studies, and queer theory; and theological responses to HIV/AIDS. His dissertation will likely approach wholeness and fragmentation in theologies of HIV/AIDS from various angles, including archival work, critical biography, and constructive theology. He is interested in the poet Tim Dlugos and the lay Catholic theologian Kevin Gordon, as well as the language of “the body of Christ has AIDS.”

Sam helps coordinate two working groups: Literature and Religion at Yale (LAR@Y) and Yale AIDS Studies (YAS). His article on hustlers and Sodom in John Rechy’s novels may be found in Literature and Theology, and The Polyphony has published his work on AIDS and ecclesiology. He is currently assembling a special issue of Theology and Sexuality on Richard Rambuss’s Closet Devotions 25 years later, and he is writing a couple of lyric memoir essays. He holds degrees from Seattle Pacific University and Yale Divinity School and certificates from Berkeley Divinity School and Yale’s Institute of Sacred Music. More may be found at samuelernest.com.