Erin Brigham

Erin Brigham

Program Director

Program Director
Socials

Biography

Erin Brigham is the executive director of the Joan and Ralph Lane Center for Catholic Social Thought and the Ignatian Tradition and affiliate faculty in the department of Theology and Religious Studies. She earned her PhD in systematic and philosophical theology from the Graduate Theological Union in 2010, when she began teaching at USF in the areas related to Catholic theology and social thought. The focus of her doctoral work was on contemporary Catholic ecclesiology in conversation with critical theory and feminist theology. Her current research and teaching focuses on the social teaching and theology of Pope Francis, the sanctuary movement, and the intersections of race, gender, and poverty in Catholic social thought.

Her most recent books include Church as Field Hospital: Toward an Ecclesiology of Sanctuary (Liturgical Press, forthcoming) and Women Engaging the Catholic Social Tradition: Solidarity Toward the Common Good, co-edited with Mary Johnson (Paulist Press, forthcoming). She is currently studying the impact of the pandemic on faith and religious practices. She grew up in the beautiful Rocky Mountains of Western Montana and now lives in San Francisco with her spouse and child.

Expertise

  • Catholic social thought
  • Critical feminist theory and theology
  • Ecclesiology

Research Areas

  • Sanctuary and theology
  • Women and Catholic social thought

Appointments

  • Executive Director, The Joan and Ralph Lane Center for Catholic Social Thought and the Ignatian Tradition
  • Chair, University Council for Jesuit Mission

Education

  • Graduate Theological Union, PhD in Systematic and Philosophical Theology, 2010

Selected Publications

  • Church as Field Hospital: Toward an Ecclesiology of Sanctuary (Liturgical Press, Forthcoming 2022)

  • Co-editor with Mary Johnson, Women Engaging the Catholic Social Tradition: Solidarity Toward the Common Good (Paulist Press, forthcoming 2022).

  • See, Judge, Act: Catholic Social Teaching and Service Learning. Anselm Academic Press, 2013. Revised Edition, 2018.

  • Brigham, E. (2015). “Women Religious and the Public Voice of Catholicism.” The Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, 31(2).

  • Brigham, E. (2015). “Women’s Voices as Critical Resources for Reading the Signs of the Times.” The Church in the Modern World Fifty Years After Gaudium et Spes: Reading the Signs of the Times, Erin Brigham, ed. Lexington Press.