Nicholas Hayes-Mota is a Ph.D. Candidate in Theological Ethics. His dissertation examines the possibility of a “politics of the common good” within a pluralistic and divided society, and draws on faith-based community organizing and Catholic social thought to propose a constructive way forward. More broadly, his research explores the connection between moral and political agency; the public role of religion in contemporary liberal democracies; and the relationship between public, political, and liberation theologies.

His work has been published in the T&T Clark Handbook of Public Theology, Ecumenical Trends, and Syndicate. Nicholas is the recipient of Boston College’s Presidential Fellowship, Margaret Flatley Fellowship, Dissertation Completion Fellowship, and Clough Graduate Fellowship, and presently serves as the Graduate Fellow Convener at the Clough Center for the Study of Constitutional Democracy.

In addition to his scholarship and teaching, Nicholas is a trainer in public narrative and community organizing with the Leading Change Network (LCN) and a facilitator with the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization.