Dr Ra¨²l E. Zegarra Lecture, 3 October 2024

Bio

Ra¨²l E. Zegarra is the author of four books, multiple book chapters, academic articles, and translations. Ra¨²l received his PhD from The University of Chicago, and holds master's degrees in philosophy and theology from the Pontificia Universidad Cat¨®lica del Per¨² and the University of Notre Dame, respectively. His research focuses on the relationship between faith and politics, with particular emphasis on how this relationship shapes the identity and commitments of minoritized groups. Ra¨²l is Assistant Professor of Roman Catholic Theological Studies at Harvard Divinity School, and is part of the editorial and advisory team at the Hispanic Theological Initiative (Princeton, NJ). He was formerly an Assistant Professor of Theology at Pontificia Universidad Cat¨®lica del Per¨². Among his recent awards, Ra¨²l has received the New Scholar Essay Prize for Catholic Studies in the Americas (Fordham University, 2023), the Max Weber Kolleg Research Fellowship (University of Erfurt, 2022), and the Manfred Lautenschlaeger Award for Theological Promise (University of Heidelberg, 2021). He is also a regular op-ed contributor to Peruvian newspaper El Comercio. Ra¨²l fourth book, A Revolutionary Faith, (Stanford UP, 2023) is devoted to liberation theology¡¯s contributions to a theory of social justice that welcomes the role of religious commitments. He is currently working on a new book project¡ªSacred Identities: Latines and the Intersectional Politics of Faith¡ªthat attempts to problematize some of the assumptions of Latine theology and cultural studies regarding the relationship between race, gender, and religion in the Latine community.