Carmen Nanko-Fernández

Carmen Nanko-Fernández is professor of Hispanic Theology and Ministry, and director of the Hispanic Theology and Ministry program at the Catholic Theological Union, Chicago, Illinois, USA. A Latin@ theologian, she served as President of the Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians of the United States (ACHTUS/2008-2009) and in 2012 received the Virgilio Elizondo Award for distinguished achievement in theology. Nanko-Fernández was born and raised in the Bronx, New York, and views teología through a decidedly “hurban@” lens, i.e. Hispanic and urban. Her scholarship explores relationships between popular culture and religion, theology and sport, béisbol and baseball with attention to race, migration, and colonization. Among her publications is a book Theologizing en Espanglish: Context, Community and Ministry (Orbis Books, 2010). Recent publications include chapters “Ordinary Theologies, Extraordinary Circumstances: Baseball at the Intersections of Faith and Popular Culture,” in Recovering 9/11 in New York; and “Lo Cotidiano as Locus Theologicus,” in The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Latino/a Theology, (Orlando O. Espín, editor, Wiley-Blackwell, 2015); and the article “Performative Theologies: Ritualizing the Daily Latinamente,” Liturgy (Spring 2014). Nanko-Fernández is currently completing ¿El Santo! Baseball and the Canonization of Roberto Clemente, a book in the Sport and Religion series of Mercer University Press.