Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2000 00:11:12 -0400 (EDT) From: "davina c. lopez" Sender: To: NYCgoth-L@necronomi.com Subject: (re)introduction...longish Reply-To: List-Subscribe: List-Digest: List-Unsubscribe: hello, all: a graduate student can never pass up the opportunity to work under pressure, so here i am under the wire with my few paragraphs for everyone's edification. my name is davina. i have been on this list for almost a year, and i have lived in nyc for a little more than three years. i came here to go back to school, and am currently in the second year of a doctoral program at union theological seminary (in harlem, or if you are into gentrification, "morningside heights") in new testament studies and social ethics. i earned my master of arts in 1999. i live near my school. i study all things having to do with biblical literature, but my other research interests are feminist and queer theories, ancient history, and ancient languages. right now i am (still, for those of you who remember my introduction) really into magical practices in the biblical world: miracles, dealing with the dead, healing rituals, etc. i also am researching kinship and family patterns among the earliest "christians" in egypt, palestine, and rome. there is a whole lot more about this but i shall not bore you with it just yet. before someone on this list gets all anxious about the word "seminary," let me offer some answers to the obvious questions pertaining to this topic. am i "religious?" sure, why not. i was raised spanish catholic and "pagan," and i have sensabilities of both, i guess. however, i do not believe in the story of jesus as the story to trump all other stories. i also find that humourless and authoritarian religion is not great religion (if religion at all). some think this makes a bad believer, but i don't have time to go into all of the reasons why there is so much bad logic and karma behind judging what makes good and bad believers. i have no plans to be a minister, though some students at my (interreligious) school do get master of divinity degrees and go right to work in pulpits. i do plan to be a professor, or at least some sort of teacher. this is what i do for a living now, or at least part-time; the other parts of my time reserved for money-making endeavors are used in graphic and webpage design. other than that, i write papers and deliver them at mostly stuffy conferences. before i moved here i lived in atlanta for 7 years, where i went to college (majors: religion and organic chemistry) and lots of clubs. i have a lot of formal dance training that got put to work in that way, i suppose. i don't ever remember not being "goth" (yeah, whatever _that_ means) in the sense that i think that i have always found intense beauty in the least likely places. here, i have not had opportunity to go out much, and i have not been in "the scene" in a big, boisterous way. i went to the bank a lot when it was open. i still go to albion, i have gone to lbv and electricity, and i also have been to hell and like it plenty. my usual dress is a combination of victorian/dietrich-esque/flowy-fetishy-wear. i am addicted to big boots. my hair is short, black, and spiky, and i'm about 5'8" and a quite pale (kind of intentional, kind of not) girl with brown eyes. this is getting long, so this paragraph will end with random (somewhat prerequisite, i could say) facts about me. music would take another post; i like it a lot, and for the past two days i have been listening to lots of old love & rockets. i am openly queer and a pervert. i like bugs, louise brooks, and the smell of rain a lot. i like to laugh and am good at it. i cook (vegetarian) often. i like to share, especially chocolate. i believe in socialism, utopia, and (perhaps especially) the unknown. i am politically active. i sew things. i have a parakeet and a caffeine addiction. i am a fanatic about the subway and old buildings. i'm also somewhat shy, but like to get e-mail even if it takes several months for me to reply. that's enough for now. as ever. davina.