Claudia Alvarez

Credentials: BA, Universidad Nacional de Colombia / MDiv, Boston University / PhD, Princeton TheologicalSeminary (present)

Specific Field: Religion and Society

Denomination: Methodist

Biography: 

Claudia Marcela Alvarez Hurtado is originally from Colombia. Before moving to the United States, she pursued degrees in Sociology, Feminist and Gender Studies, and Cultural Studies. Her involvement in LGBTQ+ and reproductive justice activism made her passionate about faith-based communities that speak prophetically against heterosexist church practices and doctrines. As an MDiv student at Boston University School of Theology, Alvarez Hurtado organized the First Latin American Meeting of Inclusive Churches, in Bogotá, Colombia. The event brought together 14 LGBTIQ+ churches and ministries from ten countries, including several Pentecostal-charismatic congregations. Based on this experience, her PhD project will ask how these churches are “queering” the Latin American Pentecostal religious movement while they search for their own ecclesial identity. Alvarez Hurtado wants to become a scholar and professor capable of bringing the richness of social science methods to the task of theologizing. She also looks forward to devoting her intellectual project to researching the concrete and innovative ways in which queer people in the Global South experience the Gospel.