Harvard Divinity School Names Raúl Zegarra Assistant Professor of Roman Catholic Theological Studies

Raúl E. Zegarra has been appointed Assistant Professor of Roman Catholic Theological Studies at Harvard Divinity School. His appointment is effective July 1, 2024.

Zegarra is Assistant Professor at Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, where he has served on the faculty since 2021. 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.

“Zegarra’s substantial scholarship will greatly enhance the HDS faculty—including our curricular offerings—and he will be a significant asset for students across HDS and Harvard,” said HDS Dean Marla F. Frederick. “His appointment strengthens the School’s capacity in Roman Catholic studies, liberation theology, and Christian social and theological ethics.”

Zegarra received a PhD from the University of Chicago in 2021, a Master of Theological Studies degree from the University of Notre Dame in 2014, and a master's degree in philosophy from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú in 2011.

“Harvard Divinity School is one of the most exciting places for the study of religion in the world,” Zegarra said. “I am truly delighted to join the faculty this fall and to become part of HDS's diverse and engaged community of inquiry. I am especially looking forward to developing classes and conversations that would place Roman Catholic theological studies within the larger field of the study of religion, drawing from the expertise of my remarkable colleagues and students.”

A prolific writer and editor, Zegarra’s most recent book, A Revolutionary Faith: Liberation Theology Between Public Religion and Public Reason, was published in 2023 by Stanford University Press. He is part of the editorial team at the Hispanic Theological Initiative (Princeton, NJ), and he is a regular op-ed contributor to the Peruvian newspaper El Comercio.

“Raúl Zegarra is a rising star in the study of Catholic theology who focuses on Latin American Catholicism, liberation theology, and political philosophy,” said Catherine Brekus, Charles Warren Professor of the History of Religion in America, Chair of the Committee on the Study of Religion (FAS), and search committee chair. “His capacious approach to Catholic theology is evident in his new book, A Revolutionary Faith, which is in conversation with the work of Gustavo Gutiérrez, David Tracy, Jacques Maritain, Paul Ricoeur, Martha Nussbaum, and John Rawls. I am thrilled about his appointment, which will greatly enrich our offerings not only in Catholic theology but also in Latin American studies, global Christianity, and ethics.”

His recent awards include the New Scholar Essay Prize for Catholic Studies in the Americas (Fordham University’s Curran Center for American Catholic Studies, 2023), the Max Weber Kolleg Research Fellowship (University of Erfurt, 2022), and the Manfred Lautenschlaeger Award for Theological Promise (University of Heidelberg, 2021).

“We are excited to have Raúl Zegarra join our faculty as the new Assistant Professor of Roman Catholic Theological Studies,” said Francis X. Clooney, S. J., Parkman Professor of Divinity, Professor of Comparative Theology, and member of the search committee. “His thinking and writing are grounded in the lived experience of the Catholic Church in his native Peru and more broadly in the Latin America liberation theology context, while his doctoral studies at the University of Chicago have made him already a sophisticated interpreter of theology, religion, and ethics as understood in the modern academy. I am sure his courses on aspects of the Catholic tradition in the Americas today will quickly make him an invaluable conversation partner for students at HDS and across Harvard, and a valued colleague as we imagine the future of academic and ministerial studies here at HDS.”

—HDS Office of Communications