Alan Wolfe
Director
Alan Wolfe is the founding director of the
Curriculum Vitae
Courses at Boston College
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Associate Director
Erik Owens is Associate Director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life, and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Theology and International Studies at Boston College. His research explores a variety of intersections between religion and public life, with particular attention to the challenge of fostering the common good of a religiously diverse society. His scholarship bridges the fields of theological ethics, political philosophy, law, education, international studies and public policy. Currently at work on a book about civic education and religious freedom in American public schools, he is also the co-editor of three books: Gambling: Mapping the American Moral Landscape (2009), Religion and the Death Penalty: A Call for Reckoning (2004) and The Sacred and the Sovereign: Religion and International Politics (2003), the last of which was called a "must read" by Foreign Affairs in 2009. He received a Ph.D. in religious ethics from the University of Chicago, an M.T.S. from Harvard Divinity School, and a B.A. from Duke University. Before joining the Boisi Center, Owens received research fellowships from the Spencer Foundation and the University of Virginia’s Center on Religion and Democracy; taught at the University of Chicago and DePaul University; and worked for the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, as well as the City of Chicago’s Board of Ethics.
Curriculum Vitae
Courses at Boston College
Susan Richard
Administrative Assistant
Susan Richard serves as the
Celso Perez
Graduate Research Assistant
Celso Perez is currently completing his M.A. in Theology at Boston College. He has a B.S. in Biochemistry and Theology from Boston College. He has previously worked as a research intern for the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) in Geneva, Switzerland and as a summer intern for the Program on International Health and Human Rights (PIHHR) at the Harvard School of Public Health. This spring he completed his senior honors thesis, which looks at Catholic social teaching on justice, human dignity, and the common good as a means for a greater understanding of homosexuality today. His academic research brings together a concern for theological ethics and public policy and has recently focused on specific questions of sexual ethics, bioethics, medicine and ethics, and health care and ethics.
Kitsy Smith
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Kitsy Smith is a senior at Boston College double majoring in International Studies and French. Last year she was awarded the Undergraduate Exchange Certificate for completing her junior year studying abroad at Sciences Po University in Paris, France. This past summer she interned in Atlanta, her hometown, with the Junior Diplomat Student Exchange Program and has worked previously with the Honorary Consul of the Philippines in Atlanta as well. Kitsy is currently writing her senior thesis on the importance and influence of international educational exchange. She is interested in cultural interaction, languages, and religious influence, enjoys reading, traveling, and singing, and is also a member of the University Chorale of Boston College.
Joesph Gravellese
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Joseph Gravellese is a senior in the College of Arts & Sciences, majoring in political science and communications. A native of Revere, Mass. and a graduate of Revere High School, Gravellese has long been interested in the Boisi Center's work. He has taken both of Prof. Alan Wolfe's classes on religion and politics. Last fall, he served as an intern for U.S. Representative Mike Capuano, and he hopes to be working in the public sector next year.