The Graduate Theological Union is pleased to announce that Dr. Michelle Gonzalez Maldonado (Michelle A. Gonzalez), Professor of Religious Studies and Assistant Provost for Undergraduate Education at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida, has been named the GTU’s 2015 Alumna of the Year. Dr. Gonzalez, whose teaching specializations include Latino/a, Latin American, and Feminist Theologies as well as Afro-Caribbean Studies, received her PhD in Systematic and Philosophical Theology from the GTU in 2001. An exemplary scholar and prolific author, Gonzalez is the author of numerous books, including Caribbean Religious History (co-authored with Ennis Edmunds, NYU Press, 2010); Shopping: Christian Explorations of Daily Living (Fortress, 2010); Embracing Latina Spirituality: A Woman’s Perspective (St. Anthony Messenger Press, 2009); Created in God’s Image: An Introduction to Feminist Theological Anthropology (Orbis, 2007); and Sor Juana: Beauty and Justice in the Americas (Orbis, 2003).
In her latest book, A Critical Introduction to Religion in the Americas: Bridging the Liberation Theology and Religious Studies Divide (NYU Press, 2014), Dr. Gonzalez speaks to the “increasing marginalization of liberation theology” and challenges the “invisible boundaries that define the study of religion.” She argues that a continuing emphasis on the critical justice concerns that liberation theologians posed decades ago requires that theologians “radically reconceptualize the theological task” and write in ways that connect with the religious realities and daily struggles of everyday people around the world.
Michelle Gonzalez Maldonado will be honored at the GTU Reception at the Annual Meeting of SBL/AAR on Saturday, November 21, at 7:00 pm at the Westin Peachtree Plaza in Atlanta, Georgia. She will also be featured in the Spring 2016 edition of our GTU magazine, Currents. The GTU extends its warm congratulations to its 2015 Alum of the Year, Michelle Gonzalez Maldonado!