2026 Speakers
Below are our speakers' photos and bios, as well as descriptions of their specific conference topics. (This information is added to this page as we receive it.)
Keynote Speaker
Greg Grandin (Yale University—New Haven, CT, USA)
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)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—TBA
Panel Speakers
:: Pope Leo and a Global Gift Exchange ::
Afe Adogame (Princeton Theological Seminary—Princeton, NJ, USA)
Maxwell M. Upson Professor of Religion & Society
Princeton Theological Seminary
(Princeton, NJ)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
Emilce Cuda (Pontifical Commission for Latin America—Rome, Italy)
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.Christopher White (Georgetown University's Initiative on Catholic Social Thought & Public Life—Washington, DC)
Associate Director for Strategic Initiatives and Senior Fellow
Initiative on Catholic Social Thought & Public Life
Georgetown University
(Washington, DC)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).
:: Leo and Catholic Social Teaching ::
Michael J. Baxter (University of Notre Dame—South Bend, IN)
Associate Professor of the Practice, Faith Formation, and Service
McGrath Institute for Church Life
University of Notre Dame
(South Bend, IN)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 taching; 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.
Steven P. Millies (Catholic Theological Union—Chicago, IL, USA)
Professor of Public Theology
Catholic Theological Union
(Chicago, IL)Steven P. Millies is professor of public theology and director of The Bernardin Center at Catholic Theological Union (CTU) in Chicago, where he also chairs the Department of Historical and Doctrinal Studies. His scholarship explores the Catholic Church’s relationship to politics in a perspective that embraces history, theology, law, ethics, sociology, philosophy, and political theory. As Pope Francis called for a “politics which is farsighted and capable of a new, integral, and interdisciplinary approach,” Millies’s work resists seeing politics only as a conflict over individual interests. Instead, in Pope Francis’s words, politics expresses our “conviction that we need one another, that we have a shared responsibility for each other and the world.” Millies studied political theory at The Catholic University of America, writing on religion in British statesman Edmund Burke’s political ideas. Before coming to CTU, he was associate professor of political science at the University of South Carolina Aiken where he held the Strom Thurmond Endowed Chair in Political Science.
His first book, Joseph Bernardin: Seeking Common Ground (Liturgical Press, 2016), won first place in the biography category for the Catholic Press Association’s 2017 Book Awards. In 2018, he published Good Intentions: A History of Catholic Voters’ Road from Roe to Trump (Liturgical Press), and in 2024, he published A Consistent Ethic of Life: Navigating Catholic Engagement with U.S. Politics (Paulist). He is a frequent contributor to the Religion News Service, and his commentaries have appeared in several periodicals that include America, Commonweal, The Hill, the National Catholic Reporter, and the Washington Post. In 2020, he was the Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ, Visiting Fellow in Catholic Studies at Loyola University Chicago’s Joan and Bill Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage. Millies is finishing his fourth book, The Sense of the Political: Laying New Foundations for Politics against the Art of the Useful. He also has in preparation a Catholic theological reflection on constitutional government under the working title A House for All Peoples: Roman Catholicism and the Modern Constitutional State.
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.
Toussaint Kafarhire Murhula, SJ (Centre Arrupe pour la Recherche et la Formation—Lubumbashi, DRC)
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).
:: Biography of Leo ::
Carmen M. Nanko-Fernández (Catholic Theological Union—Chicago, IL, USA)
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.
César Piscoya (Latin America and Caribbean Bishops' Council—Cochabamba, Bolivia)
(c) Crítica Argentina Pastoral Advisor, Center for Pastoral Action Programs and Networks (CEPRAP)
Latin America and Caribbean Bishops' Council (CELAM)
(Cochabamba, Bolivia)Official bio to come
Mr. Piscoya has been a close friend of Pope Leo's for nearly 30 years ago; they first met when Piscoya was a young Augustinian seminarian, and Prevost became his spiritual director. Piscoya later left the seminary, married, and started a family. When Prevost became bishop of the Diocese of Chiclayo, he invited Piscoya to serve as executive secretary of the diocese's social vicariate.
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)
Shannen D. Williams (University of Dayton—Dayton, OH, USA)
Photo to come 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.
:: Leo's Agenda ::
Daniel P. Castillo (Loyola Marymount University—Baltimore, MD, USA)
Assistant Professor of Theology
Loyola Marymount University
(Baltimore, MD)Daniel P. Castillo (PhD, University of Notre Dame, 2014) is an associate professor of theology at Loyola University Maryland. His teaching and research are at the intersection of liberation theology and ecological ethics and draw upon a diverse array of disciplines including the theological interpretation of scripture, political ecology, and decolonial thought. Dan’s work has appeared in various journals and edited volumes, including Theological Studies, Political Theology, and the Journal for the Society of Christian Ethics. In support of his research, Dan has received multiple grants from the Louisville Institute and was awarded a research fellowship at the Kroc Institute for Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame (2020-21).
Dan’s first book, An Ecological Theology of Liberation: Salvation and Political Ecology (Orbis Books, 2019) received College Theology Society’s “Best Book in Theology” award in 2020 and was translated into Korean. He is currently working on his second book, Confronting the Age of Cain: Christian Faith in the “Anthropocene.” This book explores the demands of Christian discipleship in a world whose political ecology has been organized predominantly by the logics and desires of the 500-year project of Western extractive colonialism.
Dan has been invited to hold the Griset Chair of Trinitarian Theology at Chapman University in 2027. There, he will explore the life of Christian faith in relation to the phenomenon of social acceleration. He is currently working as guest editor, for the Journal of Religious Ethics, on a focus issue on ethics and political ecology. He resides in Baltimore with his family and is working to be certified as a master gardener in the state of Maryland.
Philip Larrey, SJ (Boston College—Boston, MA, USA)
Associate Professor of Theology
Boston College
(Boston, MA)Fr. Philip Larrey, PhD, is a Catholic priest and professor of philosophy at Boston College. He previously held the Chair of Logic and Epistemology at the Pontifical Lateran University in the Vatican, where he also served as dean of the Philosophy Department. His scholarly work focuses on the philosophy of knowledge, critical thinking, and the impact of the digital era on society.
Fr. Larrey has authored several influential books that explore the profound effects of digital advancements on modern life, such as Futuro Ignoto (IF Press, 2014; in Italian) and Connected World—From Automated Work to Virtual Wars: The Future by Those Who are Shaping It (Penguin, 2017). The latter was translated into Italian as Dove Inizia il Futuro and published by Mondadori in 2018. His most recent book, Artificial Humanity: An Essay on the Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence (IF Press, 2019), offers a deep philosophical analysis of AI's significance for humanity. It has recently been translated into Chinese and was featured at the Hong Kong Book Fair in July 2025.
A notable aspect of his work is his engagement with the philosophical implications of artificial intelligence. Fr. Larrey actively engages with industry leaders and scholars at the Vatican, fostering discussions on how technology influences societal structures.
Fr. Larrey is a sought-after speaker who travels globally to share his expertise at universities, forums, and conferences. His engaging presentations highlight his thought leadership and deep understanding of the intersection of digital advancements and ethics. Notable organizations he has collaborated with include the United Nations, Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the World Congress of Philosophy. Fr. Larrey's insights make him a compelling choice for organizations aiming to deepen their understanding of the ethical implications of AI.
Based in Boston, Fr. Larrey is also an avid bridge player as well as a passionate fan of the Golden State Warriors and the Los Angeles Lakers.
Paola Ugaz (Diario ABC—Lima, Peru)
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)
