Autumn Banks

Thesis Supervisors: Carly Daniel-Hughes/Naftali Cohn

Thesis title: Do Not Press Me to Leave You: Lesbian Reappropriation of the Book of Ruth

Autumn Banks (she/her) is a first-year M.A. student in the department of Religions and Cultures. She completed her B.A. in Honours Linguistics with a minor in Religions and Cultures at Concordia University in 2024, during which she conducted sociophonetic research on Prince Edward Island English dialect as a part of her undergraduate thesis.

Autumn's academic interests include queer theory, biblical studies, literary analysis, and Judaic and Christian studies. Her current project explores the scholarly interpretation and literary reappropriation of the biblical story of the Book of Ruth in a lesbian context, illustrating the ways in which Ruth is celebrated as Queer Ancestress. Through her research, Autumn aims to center often-neglected lesbian voices in both scholarship and fiction in order to broaden appreciation and understanding of Jewish, Christian, and secular lesbian identity.