Christine Firer Hinze, Ph.D., professor of theology, has been named the new director of the Francis and Ann Curran Center for American Catholic Studies at Fordham.
Hinze will lead the Curran Center in advancing its role as a nationally acknowledged academic center in the Jesuit tradition focused on the engagement of faith and culture, said Stephen Freedman, Ph.D., senior vice president/chief academic officer and professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Fordham.
“It is difficult to imagine someone with more impressive credentials than Dr. Hinze, nor ones more precisely suited to the Curran Center’s mission,” Freedman said. “Fordham and the Curran Center will be very well served by her scholarship, breadth of experience and demonstrated leadership ability.”
Hinze is the author of Comprehending Power in Christian Social Ethics (Scholars Press/Academy Series, 1995), as well as numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals such as Theological Studies, The Journal of Religious Ethics and The Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics.
In addition to frequent presentations at conferences and scholarly meetings across the United States and abroad, she has served in a leadership capacity on the Board of Directors of the Catholic Theological Society of America, on the Board of Directors of Collegium and on committees of the Society of Christian Ethics and the American Academy of Religion.
Hinze received a bachelor of arts degree summa cum laude from Catholic University of America in religious studies and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. She holds an master of arts degree from Catholic University of America in theology and a doctorate from the University of Chicago Divinity School in the field of Christian social ethics.
Hinze joined Fordham in 2006 and has served as associate director of the Center for Ethics Education since 2007.
Hinze succeeds Mark Massa, S.J., who will become dean of the School of Theology and Ministry at Boston College.
