Author of America, América: A New History of the New World
Peter V. and C. Vann Woodward Professor of History—Yale University
(New Haven, CT, USA)

Greg Grandin is the Peter V. and C. Vann Woodward Professor of History at Yale University. He is the author of a number of prize-winning books, most recently, America, América: A New History of the New World, which is a New York Times bestseller. His previous book, The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America, won the Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction and was a finalist for the prize in History. Other books include Empire’s Workshop: Latin America, the United States, and the Making of an Imperial Republic, first published in 2005 and significantly revised and expanded in 2021,and Kissinger’s Shadow: The Long Reach of America’s Most Controversial Statesman.

He is also the author of The Empire of Necessity: Slavery, Freedom, and Deception in the New World, which won the Bancroft Prize in American History. Released in early 2014, The Empire of Necessity narrates the history of a slave ship revolt that inspired Herman Melville’s other masterpiece, a short story titled “Benito Cereno.” Toni Morrison called this book “scholarship at its best,” a “deft penetration into the marrow of the slave industry . . . brilliant.” Maureen Corrigan on NPR’s "Fresh Air" named The Empire of Necessity as the best book of 2014.

Grandin’s Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford’s Forgotten Jungle City was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in History, as well as for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. It was also picked by The New York Times, New Yorker, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune and NPR for their “best of” lists, and Amazon.com named it the best history book of 2009.

Grandin is also the author of The Last Colonial Massacre: Latin America During the Cold War and The Blood of Guatemala: A History of Race and Nation, which won the Latin American Studies Association’s Bryce Wood Award for the best book published on Latin America in any discipline. With Gil Joseph, Grandin co-edited A Century of Revolution: Insurgent and Counterinsurgent Violence During Latin America’s Long Cold War.

A former consultant to the United Nations' truth commission on Guatemala, Grandin is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has written for various journals, including The Nation, The Guardian, The New York Times, Harper’s, The London Review of Books, Jacobin, The Boston Review, and The Intercept.

Keynote Presentation—"Peru's Pope: Becoming Leo in a Time of Fear & Faith"

This presentation will discuss the larger historical context of Robert Prevost, in Peru in particular and Latin America more generally, in an era when liberation theology was waning, the Peruvian revolutionary and terrorist organization called the Shining Path was growing, and neoliberalism was taking hold.

Maxwell M. Upson Professor of Religion & Society
Princeton Theological Seminary
(Princeton, NJ, USA)

Afe Adogame is the Maxwell M. Upson Professor of Religion and Society, and current chair of the Religion and Society Program at Princeton Theological Seminary (Princeton, NJ). He earned a PhD in the history of religions from the University of Bayreuth, Germany, and has served as associate professor of World Christianity and religious studies, as well as director international at School of Divinity, New College, at The University of Edinburgh in Scotland. He is also Professor Extraordinaire at the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa (2018-2026). 

His teaching and research interests are broad but tend to focus on interrogating new dynamics of religious experiences and expressions in Africa and the African diaspora, with a particular focus on African Christianities and new indigenous religious movements as well as the interconnectedness between religion and migration, globalization, politics, economy, media and the civil society. His research interests also include religion, conflict, violence and peacebuilding, religion and food, religion and sports. 

He has published extensively on these and other related topics. His most recent publications include Topographies of African Spirituality (coeditor; Routledge, 2025); The Routledge Handbook of Research Methods in the Study of Indigenous Religions (coeditor, Routledge, 2025); The Routledge Handbook of Megachurches (coeditor, Routledge, 2024); and Indigeneity in African Religions: Oza Worldviews, Cosmologies and Religious Cultures (Bloomsbury Academic, 2022). 

Conference Presentation—TBA

Secretary, Pontifical Commission for Latin America (Rome, Italy)
Advisor, CELAM—Latin American & Caribbean Bishops' Conference (Bogotá, Colombia)
Adjunct Assistant Professor, Institute of Pastoral Studies, Loyola University of Chicago (Chicago, IL, USA)

An official of the Roman Curia, Emilce Cuda is secretary of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America (PCAL), appointed by Pope Francis in 2021, and leads its "Building Bridges Initiative," which works on 5 continents to support inclusion, reconciliation, and fraternity with university, organized labor, and episcopal networks through socio-environmental dialogue. Dr. Cuda also serves as an adviser to CELAM (Latin American & Carribean Bishops' Conference) and as an adjunct assistant professor for Loyola University of Chicago's Institute of Pastoral Studies. In addition, she is a member of the International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC)'s research team, "The Future of Work: Labor after Laudato Si'," and also belongs to the global network of Catholic Theological Ethics in the World Church (CTWEC).

Her previous positions include serving in Argentina as a professor and/or researcher at Arturo Jauretche National University in Buenos Aires, the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina, the University of Buenos Aires, the University of Argentina Empresa, the University of Belgrano, and the University of Business & Social Sciences. She also was a visiting professor or research fellow at Boston College (2016), Northwestern University (2011), and DePaul University (2019) in the United States. Additionally, she is the former director of the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO)'s Working Group on Theology, Ethics, and Politics, which consisted of 120 researchers from 50 universities in 24 countries.

Dr. Cuda holds a PhD in theology from the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina as well as 2 honorary doctorates from Loyola University of Chicago and the National University of Rosario, Argentina. She is the author of Para Leer a Francisco: Teología, Ética y Política [Reading Francis: Theology, Ethics, and Politics], published in Spanish in 2017 by Ediciones Manantial, and in Italian in 2018 by Bollati Boringhieri. She has been a guest keynote speaker for the United Nations at COP16, 28, and 29 and participated and organized numerous conferences, workshops, and seminars across the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa.

Associate Director for Strategic Initiatives and Senior Fellow
Initiative on Catholic Social Thought & Public Life
Georgetown University
(Washington, DC, USA)

Christopher White is the associate director for strategic initiatives and senior fellow of the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at Georgetown University. He is the author of the book, Pope Leo XIV: Inside the Conclave and the Dawn of a New Papacy (Loyola Press, 2025). 

The former Vatican correspondent and national correspondent for National Catholic Reporter and a former reporter for Crux, Chris's work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and the Washington Post, amon many other print and online publications. He has regularly appeared on television and radio programs, including CNN, NPR, NBC, and BBC as well as a Vatican analyst for NBC and MSNBC. He is a graduate of Fordham University (New York City) and The King's College (New York City). 

Panel Presentation—“From Missionary Priest to Missionary Pope”

This presentation will chronicle the unlikely journey of how an understated priest from Chicago was shaped by his pastoral experience in Peru that set him on course to become history’s first pope from the United States. We will explore the dynamics among the College of Cardinals as they entered into conclave and considered if and how to continue the reforms of Pope Francis. And one year after his election, we will examine Leo’s own pastoral priorities and what they might mean for the future of the Catholic Church.

Associate Professor of the Practice, Faith Formation, and Service
McGrath Institute for Church Life
University of Notre Dame  
(South Bend, IN, USA) 

Michael Baxter serves as Associate Professor of the Practice, Faith Formation, and Service at Notre Dame's McGrath Institute for Church Life (MICL). Michael earned his MDiv degree from the University of Notre Dame and his PhD in theology and ethics from Duke University. He currently teaches at Regis University in Denver and has previously held teaching appointments at DePaul University, the University of Dayton, and the University of Notre Dame (1996-2011).

He has received a number of awards and distinctions, including the Charlotte Newcombe Dissertation Fellowship and the Allegheny College Blue Award for Distinction in Service. He was a co-founder of Andre House in Phoenix and the Peter Claver Catholic Worker in South Bend. He is currently a board member of Our Lady of the Road, a daytime drop-in center for the poor and homeless in South Bend, and also of the Tamarindo Foundation in support of village-based social projects in El Salvador.

In his role at Notre Dame, among other projects, he will be helping the MICL with programming connecting the Eucharist and Catholic social teaching; working with the Notre Dame Office of Life and Human Dignity to assemble Catholic resources for anti-racist theory and practice; and helping the MICL make a substantial contribution toward understanding the significance of the cause for canonization of Dorothy Day.

Panel Presentation—“Americanism Between the Two Pope Leos: Misguided Movement, Erroneous Doctrine, Phantom Heresy, and Tragic Tradition”

In this presentation, I will trace the emergence of the ideas that make up Americanism and then subject them to theological critique. I’ll begin by identifying the ideas that made up Americanism in the 19th century, the people who propagated them at that time, and the historical context that made them so compelling and controversial that Pope Leo XIII condemned them. Then, I will show how Americanist themes were developed by Catholics in the U.S. even after Leo’s condemnation and how these themes shaped the discourse of American Catholic social ethics throughout the 20th century, particularly in the thought of John Courtney Murray and his successors.

From there, I will argue that the success of the Americanist tradition in Catholic social thought has produced its most vexing feature and failure: the intractable political divisions between liberal and conservative Catholics that have dominated the Church in the U.S. for the past half century. In conclusion, I maintain that only by refusing partisan allegiances and setting aside state-centered political agendas will Catholics be free to take up fresh, imaginative ventures at embodying Catholic social teaching—as indeed has been happening.

But to sustain such initiatives and movements, Catholics must regain a healthy skepticism toward taking up its previous nation-building and culture-forming tasks in the U.S., a skepticism that would be reinforced if Pope Leo XIV would issue another warning, echoing his predecessor and namesake, about the deleterious effects of Americanism.

Professor of Public Theology
Catholic Theological Union
(Chicago, IL, USA)

Conference Presentation—New Life for the Consistent Ethic: “A Global Ethic of Solidarity” from Chicago to Chiclayo to Rome and Back

The consistent ethic of life proposed in 1983 by Chicago’s Cardinal Joseph Bernardin was overtaken by the very controversies it was intended to address and, despite formal acceptance at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and in Pope John Paul II’s encyclical letter Evangelium Vitae, it never gained traction in wider popular imagination except as a “liberal” formulation. In 2017 remarks at Loyola University Chicago, Bernardin’s successor Cardinal Blase Cupich linked the consistent ethic to solidarity, and in 2022 at Catholic Theological Union, Cardinal Michael Czerny, SJ, connected the ethic to Pope Francis’s Fratelli Tutti.  With these new perspectives now driving our reception of the ethic and especially in light of then-Cardinal Robert Prevost, OSA’s 2023 remarks about the ethic, it seems clear the Leonine papacy offers a new moment and new life for the consistent ethic. The consistent ethic of life reflects and amplifies how a global church lives solidarity together, differently though with one mind and heart, fixed on a vision of integral development at the service of every human person and all of Creation. 

Executive Director 
Centre Arrupe pour la Recherche et la Formation (CARF) 
(Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo)

A Jesuit priest, educator, theologian, and political science professor, Fr. Toussaint Kafarhire Murhula has lectured at various institutions worldwide, such as Université Loyola du Congo in the DRC; Hekima Institute of Peace Studies in Kenya; the Episcopal Theological College in Pecs, Hungary; Sophia University in Japan; and Loyola University Chicago in the U.S. Before earning his PhD in global politics and international relations at Loyola University Chicago in 2016, he received a BA in philosophy (1998), another BA in theology (2003), and an STL degree in ethics and social theories from Santa Clara University in California (2005).

His research interests include international relations and global politics, public health, social justice, ethical leadership, societal issues, democracy, and African politics. He also studies literature, religion, hermeneutics, and postcolonial theories. An alumnus of the U.S. State Department's Humphrey Fellowship Program at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government and the Academy of Executive Coaching in Nairobi, he has worked with African leaders through Coach Africa at the African Union level. He was a keynote speaker at the 2024 commencement ceremony of the College of Arts and Sciences at Loyola University Chicago.

His positions and affiliations include currently serving as executive director of Centre Arrupe pour la Recherche et la Formation (CARF) in Lubumbashi, DRC. He also serves as the president of the African Studies Association of Africa, an editorial board member of Global Africa Journal, a member of the Critical Investigations into Humanitarianism in Africa (CIHA) network, and a member of the Pan-African Catholic Theology and Pastoral Network. He also previously coordinated the Africa region of Catholic Theological Ethics in the World Church (CTEWC).

Panel Presentation—“Human Dignity, Historical Responsibility, and Ecological Justice: Africa's Expectations for Pope Leo XIV”

Africa welcomes Pope Leo XIV with great love, faith, and hope—yet also with a clear moral agenda shaped by the Church's social teaching. If the continent does not ask the Church to act in its stead, it requests that the Church accompany its poor, advocate when silence perpetuates injustice, and remind the world that Africa is not merely a periphery of humanity but a bearer of conscience, culture, and hope.

The aspirations of the “poor" in Africa under Pope Leo XIV—those who are “harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:36)—are sincere and profound. They are rooted in daily experiences and articulated through the principles of dignity, justice, and responsibility—values the Church has fervently championed in its social teaching. This includes the dignity of every individual created in the image and likeness of God; justice for the earth, whose cry is aligned with that of the poor; and responsibility toward history's transcendence, referring to a robust, contextually grounded theology that advocates for the safeguarding of human heritage—spiritual, cultural, intellectual, and environmental—for future generations.

Professor, Hispanic Theology & Ministry | Director, Hispanic Theology & Ministry Program
Catholic Theological Union
(Chicago, IL, USA)

Carmen M. Nanko-Fernández is a self-described Hurban@ (Hispanic and urban) theologian whose research and scholarship in Latin@ theologies have advanced the role of lo popular (popular culture/popular religion) as source for theology. She is a professor of Hispanic theology and ministry at Catholic Theological Union (CTU) in Chicago, as well as the director of its Hispanic Theology and Ministry Program. Her publications include the book Theologizing en Espanglish (Orbis, 2014), as well as numerous chapters, scholarly, and pastoral articles on Latin@ theologies, theological education, Catholic social teaching, im/migration, Pope Francis, sport and theology—with a particular focus on béisbol/baseball. Carmen’s writing also appears in periodicals and journals such as Commonweal, National Catholic Reporter, Aztlán: Journal of Chicano Studies, The Conversation, and The Journal of Hispanic/Latino Theology. Carmen is the founder and co-editor, with Miguel Díaz and the late Gary Riebe-Estrella, SVD, of the multivolume series Disruptive Cartographers: Doing Theology Latinamente (Fordham University Press). She is currently completing her book ¿El Santo? Baseball and the Canonization of Roberto Clemente (Mercer University Press).  

Carmen presents regularly in a broad range of academic and pastoral venues, though she counts among the highlights a paper delivered in Cooperstown at a conference co-sponsored by the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Her work in sport and theology has also netted invitations to speak with athletic departments in Catholic secondary and higher educational contexts on issues of sport and mission. A past president of the Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians of the United States (ACHTUS), she received their Virgilio Elizondo Award for “distinguished achievement in theology.” 

Conference Presentation—Baseball and a Pope from Chicago: Cultivating Theologies of Encounter in a Language of Lo Popular

Following his election, Pope Leo XIV’s Chicagoland roots quickly set in motion spirited debates on everything from his preferred pizza to his allegiances as a baseball fan. The North Side’s Cubs seized the moment proclaiming him as one of their own, while the White Sox emphasized his South Side credentials including evidence of his presence at Game 1 of the 2005 World Series. Succeeding Pope Francis, a soccer fan whose pontificate produced an impressive “canon within a canon” on sports, Leo faces a few expectations of continuity. In Latin@ theologies, lo cotidiano—daily lived experience—is a rich source for theology. From such a perspective, sports—as an expression of popular culture, ritual, and even civic religion—provide content, context, and place for doing theology. The Chicago dimension of Leo’s biography and the sports engagements of Pope Francis invite a deeper and nuanced look at the historical connections between Chicago baseball and the Vatican, as well as the potential for sport to continue to develop as one set of languages cultivating theologies of encounter. 

Pastoral Advisor, Center for Pastoral Action Programs and Networks (CEPRAP)
Latin America and Caribbean Bishops' Council (CELAM)
(Cochabamba, Bolivia)

A native of Chiclayo, Peru, César Piscoya has lived more than 15 years in Cochabamba, Bolivia, where he served for 10 years (2005-2015) with Archbishop Tito Solari as executive secretary of the Archdiocese of Cochabamba’s Pastoral Vicariate. He later held this same position (2017-2022) in his home diocese of Chiclayo, working with then-Bishop Robert Prevost, OSA (now Pope Leo XIV). He first met Prevost nearly 30 years ago, when he was a discerning a vocation as a priest in the Augustinian order and Prevost became his spiritual director. He decided to leave the seminary, later marrying and starting a family. When Prevost became bishop of Chiclayo in 2015, he invited Piscoya to work with him in the diocese’s pastoral vicariate.

Piscoya holds an MA in sacred theology from the Universidad Católica San Pablo de Bolivia. He also has completed specializations in “Diocesan Pastoral Processes in Light of Aparecida” through the Latin American Bishops’ Conference (CELAM) Institute of Pastoral Theology for Latin America (Bogotá, Colombia) and in “Sacred Scripture: Textual, Contextual, and Interpretive Approaches” through the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, also in Bogotá.

Currently, Piscoya works as a pastoral advisor in the Centro de Programas y Redes de Acción Pastoral, or CEPRAP [Center for Pastoral Action Programs & Networks]; defined as “the heart of a church in motion,” CEPRAP is a division of the Latin American & Caribbean Bishops’ Conference (CELAM). Piscoya also is currently working on a PhD in sociology through the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (Lima), with a dissertation titled “Entre la tradición y el cambio: Relaciones de poder y participación femenina en el Equipo Diocesano de Animación Pastoral de Chiclayo (2017-2022)” [Between Tradition and Change: Power Relations and Women’s Participation in the Diocese of Chiclayo’s Pastoral Ministry Team (2017-2022)].

Videos & articles featuring Mr. Piscoya:

• "He was my spiritual director" (Univision Noticias interview in Spanish, May 2025
• 20 days into new papacy, clues to Pope Leo's appointment style may lie in Chiclayo (NCR article, May 2025)

Associate Professor of History
University of Dayton
(Dayton, OH, USA)

Shannen Dee Williams is associate professor of history at the University of Dayton. She is an award-winning scholar of the African American experience and Black Catholicism with research and teaching specializations in women’s, religious, and Black freedom movement history. She holds a BA in history with magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa honors from Agnes Scott College, an MA in Afro-American studies from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and a PhD in history from Rutgers University.

The first Black woman elected to the executive council of the American Catholic Historical Association,  Williams is a co-founder the Fleming-Morrow Endowment in African American History at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. In 2020, she also submitted successful proposals to establish the Mother Mary Lange Lecture in Black Catholic History at Villanova University and the Cyprian Davis, OSB Prize through the American Catholic Historical Association and Notre Dame University's Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism.

A lifelong Catholic, Williams is the author of Subversive Habits: Black Catholic Nuns in the Long African American Freedom Struggle (Duke University Press, 2019); she also penned the award-winning column, "The Griot’s Cross," for the Catholic New Service from 2020 to 2022.

Panel Presentation—“Human Dignity, Historical Responsibility, and Ecological Justice: Africa's Expectations for Pope Leo XIV"

The 2025 election of Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost to the papacy of the Roman Catholic Church has marked an important turning point in the history of the American Catholic experience. Not only is the Chicago-born Prevost the first Catholic pope to originate from the United States, but also Prevost's genealogical roots—especially his deliberately hidden Creole heritage—have turned unprecedented attention to a long-suppressed truth: that all roads in American Catholicism (in North, South, and Central America, including the Caribbean) lead back to the extraordinarily violent and mostly unreconciled histories of Catholic colonialism, slavery, and segregation. This presentation will specifically examine the fraught history of white supremacy and racial passing in U.S. religious life, the enduring consequences of anti-Blackness in American Catholic institutions, and the complex meanings of the first "Black" pope in the modern era.

Associate Professor of Theology
Loyola University Maryland
(Baltimore, MD, USA)

Panel Presentation—“Gardening in a Valley of Dry Bones: Politico-Ecological Love in Pope Leo’s Papacy"

In this presentation, I draw on insights from Dilexi Te and previous papal teaching to reflect upon the challenges that the church faces in living out its vocation to serve and care for the soil and all that comes from the soil (Genesis 2:15). I consider, specifically, the possibility of friendship with neighbor and earth in a time of continued extractivism and intensifications in energy-use by tech firms.

Associate Professor of Theology
Boston College
(Boston, MA, USA)

Panel Presentation—“Pope Leo XVI and the Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence"

Profound questions concerning the nature of the human intellect, the structure of the mind, and the mystery of consciousness have been debated for centuries in many diverse philosophical traditions. With the widespread use of AI platforms, these questions are receiving new attention and interpretations from the tech industry and Silicon Valley.

This talk will highlight some of the most pressing issues around this topic of AI, taking a look at Pope Leo’s message “Preserving Human Voices and Faces” for the World Day of Social Communications on January 26 of this year to explore some very interesting aspects of the AI debate and hopefully provide insights on how to navigate the deep implications of this digital revolution.

Co-author, Mitad Monjes, Mitad Soldados [Half Monks, Half Soldiers] 
Investigative journalist & correspondent, Diario ABC-Peru 
(Lima, Peru)

A journalist since 1999, Paola Ugaz currently works as a correspondent in Lima for the Peruvian edition of the Spanish newspaper, Diario ABC. She is a founding member of IDL Reporteros, an investigative journalism platform, and the former general editor of LaMula.pe, dedicated to “citizen journalism.” In addition, she is the author of two books: Punche Perú: La Lucha por un Trabajo Digno (2010), which addresses the conditions faced by Peru’s dockworkers, and Chinkaqkuna, Los Que Se Perdieron (2015), which shares stories about the tens of thousands—mostly indigenous Andean men—who were forcibly disappeared between 1980-2000 in Peru’s internal armed conflict.

She is also the coauthor, with Pedro Salinas, of Mitad Monjes, Mitad Soldados Half Monks, Half Soldiers], a book published in 2015 that exposed years of physical, psychological, and sexual abuse inside Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (SCV), a prominent lay Catholic organization founded in the 1970s in Peru.* The reporting done by Ugaz and Salinas won them Peru’s National Journalism Award in 2016, and it won Ugaz the 2021 Courage in Journalism Award from the International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF).

Ugaz also received the 2024 LASA Media Award, given in Bogotá for outstanding “long-term journalistic contributions to analysis and public debate about Latin America.” And in 2025, she was one of two honorable mentions for the Maria Moors Cabot Prizes, the oldest international awards in journalism, given by Columbia University’s Journalism School in recognition of distinguished reporting on the Americas.

*Their book and further reporting on SCV brought both Ugaz and Salinas an onslaught of legal threats and lawsuits. But it also helped connect them in 2014 with Robert Prevost, OSA, the new bishop of Chiclayo, Peru, and later, head of the Peruvian bishops’ commission that serves victims of abuse. Bishop Prevost became a strong advocate for Ugaz, Salinas, and the SCV victims, and after being named a cardinal, he helped elevate the SCV’s crimes to Pope Francis and Vatican investigators. Just days before Francis died, the Vatican formally dissolved the SCV.

Articles featuring Ms. Ugaz:

• How Pope Leo dealt with years of abuse allegations in a powerful Catholic society in Peru (CNN/WRAL News, May 2025)
• As Pope Leo XIV faces scrutiny, victims of abusive Catholic group say he helped when others didn't (AP, May 2025)
• Peruvian journalist who unveiled Catholic scandals wins press award (Crux, November 2021)