I am an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Theology, University of St. Michael’s College in the University of Toronto working in the area of historical and systematic theology. I began at the Faculty in 2004 and received tenure and promotion to Associate Professor in 2010. I regularly teach courses in Christology, Ecclesiology, 19th and 20th century theologians and theological movements, Catholic Modernism and Vatican II. In 2020, I co-taught a new course with Prof. Darren Dias on “Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church”, which we will offer again.

In terms of research interests, I study the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) and am especially interested in the social, political, and ecclesial factors of the 18th to 20th centuries that gave rise to the need for a Council and of its effects on the religious and social landscape in Canada. To advance this work, I created the “Institute for Research on the Second Vatican Council in Canada” in 2012. I’m currently involved in two research projects. The first is a Social Sciences and Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), Insight-Grant funded project comparing the different receptions of Vatican II in Quebec and Ontario from 1965 to 1985 through the lens of liturgy and catechesis, ecumenism and interfaith dialogue, and socio-political engagement. The second is a SSHRC, Connection-Grant funded project, the title of which is: “Paulo Freire’s “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” and Ivan Illich’s “Deschooling Society: Fifty Years Later.” In connection with this latter project, I’m a member of the Theory and History of Education International Research Group (THEIRG) at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario.

I’m a member of the American Academy of Religion, the Catholic Theological Society of America, the European Academy of Religion, and the European Society for Catholic Theology.

Interested doctoral students should contact me directly through my email address.