On November 7th, the Chaplain’s Office, the Yale Hindu Life program, W{holy} Queer program, Asian American Cultural Center, Yale Office of LGBTQ Resources and Yale Hindu Students Organization are partnering to bring Sivananda (“Shiva”) Subbaraman to speak on campus.

Shiva is a path-breaker on multiple fronts, a valuable leader who brings together the LGBTQ, South Asian and Asian American communities. She is an openly-gay Tamil Brahmin Hindu woman and the founding Director of the LGBTQ Center at Georgetown University. Shiva has presented on balancing LGBTQ work and faith at many key national conferences (e.g., ACPA, NASPA, Expanding the Circle) and campuses. She is the recipient of, among other honors, the Award for Intersectionality from the Consortium of Higher Education LGBT Resource Professionals and the President’s Award for Excellence and Leadership from Georgetown University.

The following link provides Shiva’s bio: https://lgbtq.georgetown.edu/about-us/staff

Shiva will deliver a keynote address for a general audience that offers insights and experiences from her personal journey, alongside social, political, and institutional understandings of identity. We will provide a catered vegetarian Indian dinner prior to the talk. The event will be held in LC101.

After the talk she will meet with a smaller group of LGBTQ students and allies belonging to the Yale community to speak more directly about Yale students’ personal experiences and areas where they may need support on campus. If you would like to attend this smaller conversation, please email Associate Chaplain Jenny at jennifer.peek@yale.edu. We anticipate this to be a forum where students can share more sensitive issues and benefit from Shiva’s experience and advice.

This event is sponsored in part by a grant from Belonging at Yale.