anthony petro
Historian of religion, visual culture, sexuality
Mostly nerdy academic stuff & whippet pics
Provoking Religion: Sex, Art, & the Culture Wars (OUP 2025)
After the Wrath of God: AIDS, Sexuality, & American Religion (OUP 2015)
linktr.ee/anthonypetro
- Reposted by anthony petroFriends!!! You know how obsessed I have become with Common Sense. Tom Paine published that pamphlet 250 years ago this January. I published an essay about it TODAY, in the New York Times. Common Sense remains relevant as ever. I hope you enjoy it. Gift article ⬇️⬇️⬇️
- This piece is getting picked up again, so I share it in honor of World AIDS Day: floridaphoenix.com/2025/12/01/h...
- Humbled and thrilled about this upcoming roundtable on *Provoking Religion* at AAR Boston! Can't wait to see and hear from Siobhan Kelly, Wendy Mallette, Drake Konow, Kris J. Trujillo, William Stell, and Sam Catilin -- the provocations start on Monday, 12:30 PM in Hynes Convention Center!
- Reposted by anthony petroAs of twenty-nine minutes ago, I get to publicly share that "Disability Works" won the South Atlantic MLA Book Award!
- Reposted by anthony petroThrilled that my Theatre Journal essay on guide dogs and rehabilitation performance cultures is the subject of the first segment on the latest episode of On TAP! Many thanks for the hosts for taking the time to read and discuss this weird essay. www.ontappod.com
- This podcast series by Lynne Gerber and her team about a San Francisco church facing the HIV/AIDS crisis in the 80s and 90s is simply stunning. Check it out!
- Reposted by anthony petroPlaytime With Truvy in Four Acts
- Reposted by anthony petroIt would seem that I missed an email and Disability Works ALSO won the Book of the Year Award for the National Communication Association’s GLBTQ Communication Studies Division!!!!
- Reposted by anthony petroOver the moon to share that Disability Works received the National Communication Association’s Lilla A. Heston Award for Outstanding Scholarship in Interpretation and Performance Studies!
- How have I only now discovered TJ's Chile Crackers. Wow.
- Reposted by anthony petroHundreds of LGBTQ+ Catholics and their families participated in a Holy Year pilgrimage to Rome on Saturday (Sept. 6), celebrating a new level of acceptance in the Catholic Church after long feeling shunned and crediting Pope Francis with the change.
- Reposted by anthony petroGrateful to have Review # 6 of "Disability Works" out in H-Disability! networks.h-net.org/group/review...
- Reposted by anthony petro9 CDC Directors going back to 1977 speak out. What RFK Jr has done to our nation’s public health system "should alarm every American." It "is unlike anything we have ever seen at the agency, and unlike anything our country has ever experienced." www.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/o...
- Notre Dame is running a search for the next Annenberg Chair in American Studies and Journalism (associate or full). Candidates will be expected to direct and teach courses for the Gallivan Program in Journalism, Ethics, and Democracy. Applications due by Oct 15! apply.interfolio.com/170389
- Reposted by anthony petroWhy do you appreciate unions? I’ll start: Weekends off Paid vacations Work breaks Sick leave Paid holidays No child labor Safer working conditions Health care and retirement benefits
- Reposted by anthony petroPritzker: To the members of the press who are assembled here today and listening across the country, I am asking for your courage to tell it like it is. This is not a time to pretend here that there are two sides to this story.
- Reposted by anthony petroThe gradual inclusion of truth about the experience of slavery in American museums has been one of the most deeply researched and considered and consequential developments in public history over the last half century. Enraging we have to defend it in this way.
- Reposted by anthony petroAuthor Q&A: Judith Weisenfeld on Black Religion in the Madhouse open.substack.com/pub/usreligi...
- Reposted by anthony petroShelburday
- Reposted by anthony petro“We need to talk about Truvy.”
- A decade ago today, Shelby bravely battled a tree branch at Amory park in Brookline
- Very grateful to chat about *Provoking Religion* with Clayton Jarrard for the New Books Network! Now available on their site as well as Spotify and Apple podcasts. newbooksnetwork.com/provoking-re...
- Reposted by anthony petro“American Academy of Arts&Sciences reports 96.3% of humanities grads age 23-32 fully employed. Earnings in humanitiess comparable to social/life sciences, job satisfaction levels too. A serious mismatch bw actual employment for hum grads +general perception." www.mellon.org/voices/human...
- These two...
- Good read.
- Today in floral drag... Blackberry lily, which is actually Iris domestica (so I have learned!)
- Reposted by anthony petroHappy to share that "Disability Works" has been shortlisted for the Theatre and Performance Research Association's David Bradby Monograph Prize. Congrats to this stellar group of finalists!
- "Polling reveals that a majority of religious people believe that abortion should be legal in all or most cases."
- Reposted by anthony petroNew from me in JAAR - “Review Essay: Critical Secularism Studies in These Times” academic.oup.com/jaar/article...
- Reposted by anthony petroReview #4 of Disability Works is out in Review: The Journal of Dramaturgy! "a thoughtful, nuanced, and deeply archival analysis of the intersecting histories of labor, theatre, and disability...Every scholar concerned with even loosely connected topics should have a copy on their bookshelf."
- My partner is forcing me to listen to dance remixes of "I've Written a Letter to Daddy." How did it come to this?
- ND American Studies is hiring! We have two searches this year:
- 1) Annenberg Chair in American Studies and Journalism: apply.interfolio.com/170389
- 2) Assistant Professor in Sports, Media, and Culture: apply.interfolio.com/170582
- Please help us spread the word!
- Reposted by anthony petro“Disability Works” turns 1 today! I’d like to celebrate by making sure it finds its way into the hands of even more readers. You can help by: 1) Requesting your library purchase a copy (link in bio) 2) Let me know if you assign it (I can zoom in!) #disability #academicsky #historysky #booksky
- These poppies were from a few weeks ago but I still think about them.
- Now that we have a real garden, I feel compelled to post flower pics. Blueskiers, beware.
- (I don't usually cut them to bring in the house, but these three shared a stalk that was damaged in a rain storm.)
- You might not know this, but the 13th anniversary is the Hoosier anniversary! Ever glad that @pmckelveyphd.bsky.social trained from Providence to Boston those many years ago to meet me at a bookstore.
- Moving from Janet Malcolm's book on Gertude and Alice to Steven Hahn's Illiberal America causing mental whiplash
- Reposted by anthony petro[This post could not be retrieved]
- Reposted by anthony petroTranscription error or Totally Normal voicemail from my mother ?
- Reposted by anthony petroToday at Half Price Books
- Still one of my all-time favorite moments in Truvy history
- Today marks the 10 year publication anniversary for *After the Wrath of God* but HOWWWWWWWWW. (The paperback edition, linked here, is way cheaper, btw...) global.oup.com/academic/pro...
- Quick announcement -- super thrilled to join NYU Press as a series editor for the North American Religions book series! I'm honored and humbled to join this series that Laura, Tracy, and David founded and have made so strong, publishing amazing books by *so many* scholars I admire.
- There will be two additional series editors also shuffling in very soon, so stay tuned... And, in the meantime, if you're working on book that might be a good fit, please reach out!
- Reposted by anthony petro👀
- Reposted by anthony petroten years ago today! #freedomtomarryyoursighthounds #one🚬onewhippetonelove
- Reposted by anthony petroWhat are we even doing
- Reposted by anthony petroHappy to have had the opportunity to write a short piece for Theatre Journal's online edition to supplement my guide dog essay! You get a quick redux of the article as well as some details on how I came to write this! www.jhuptheatre.org/theatre-jour...
- Reposted by anthony petroA long shot, but anyone I know in possession of copies of "On The Beam," the newsletter of The Actors' Fund's AIDS Initiative? AF's papers at NYU only include one issue, from the late 90s.
- Cover is amazing.
- Yay! Congrats to P and so happy to see this out in the world!
- Reposted by anthony petroIllinois has enshrined protections to meet this very moment. In a time of increasing overreach and hateful rhetoric, it's more important than ever to reaffirm our commitment to the rights and dignity of the LGBTQ+ community. You have a home here always.
- She's here.
- Reposted by anthony petroI just went there to try and find the NYT coverage of the largest protests in modern American history and just kept on scrolling and scrolling and scrolling …
- Answered "11 Questions" about *Provoking Religion* for the folks at KtB! (with thanks to @briallenhopper.bsky.social)
- Reposted by anthony petroThrilled that "Disability Works" is shortlisted for ATHE's Outstanding Book Award! www.athe.org/news/703103/...
- Reposted by anthony petroReview #2 of "Disability Works" is in! Grateful for Elisabeth Motley's beautiful review essay on recent disability performance studies books in TDR—and honored to have "Disability Works" read alongside books by Petra Kuppers and Tony McCaffrey! www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
- Reposted by anthony petroand while you're waiting on me to publish our chat, you should go learn more about @ahmadgreene.com's glorious first book religiondispatches.org/phoning-it-i...
- So excited to speak with the amazing @mpgphd.bsky.social!!!!
- reading (well, "reading") @apetro.bsky.social's provocative and tragically timely new book for another installment of @religiondispatches.org's Phoning It In what a joy to think through creativity and conflict with this brilliant friend y'all should check out the book academic.oup.com/book/59697
- Reposted by anthony petroWednesday evening vibes
- Reposted by anthony petroI hesitate to enter a Discourse, but is it just my naiveté that has me believing that at some point employers will want to see evidence that college students know how to *not* use AI? Like at what point will colleges be offering credentials that guarantee their holders can do real work themselves?
- Finally joined the ranks of people with real lawnmowers (as opposed to the tiniest, battery operated weed-eater/mower I used in PGH, and for which I was mower-shamed by a lovely new neighbor here in SB). Even figured out how to start it.
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- Have y'all read this AWARD WINNING book yet???????
- Reposted by anthony petroA new initiative to provide resources to stand up for higher education.
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- Amazing upcoming symposium here in Boston!!!!
- Reposted by anthony petroAnother excellent day of #AmRel mail, with the arrival of @apetro.bsky.social’s new book, *Provoking Religion”!
