HTI Alumni

Jorge A. Aquino

Jorge A. Aquino

Associate Professor of Theology and Religious Studies and Latin American Studies University of San Francisco

Field of Study: Theology

I identify as a recovering outer Catholic, working on a intersectional, post-liberationist, decolonial theology. Academic theology is my second career. In the last century I made my living as a journalist — covering business, the law, and financial news. I earned my Ph.D. from the Graduate Theological Union (GTU) in Berkeley, Ca., in 2006. At GTU I began in Systematic Theology, but finished in Interdisciplinary Studies because my theological questions could not be creatively engaged within the field’s prevailing disciplinary parameters (1999-2003). My interdisciplinary formation is in modern Christian systematics, Ethnic Studies, and poststructuralist discourse theory. My crucial secondary discipline is Ethnic Studies, which I studied at the University of California, Berkeley. I have been on the USF faculty since 2005 and tenured since 2012. I teach in my home department (Theology & Religious Studies), as well as the Latin American Studies Program and the Honors College. I teach courses on liberation theology, critical race studies, and social movements. I have also taught in the Hispanic Summer Program. I am past president of the Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians of the United States (2014-2015), and a fellow of the Hispanic Theological Initiative (2002-2006). Since 2016 I have been a Principal Researcher of the Consejo Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales (CLACSO), in projects around Pope Francis’s vision of global renewal, economic equality, and sustainability. I am married to a Nuyorican feminist scholar, Angelina VillafaƱe, who teaches at Contra Costa College. I am stepfather to two grown kids (Rukmini & Jayanti) and Abuelo to a beautiful five-year-old spirit named Aileen. We all live together in West Berkeley, California.

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