Rate My Professor Christopher Tirres

Christopher Tirres is the Vincent de Paul Professor of Religious Studies at DePaul University, where he also holds the Inaugural Endowed Professorship in Diplomacy and Interreligious Engagement within the Grace School of Applied Diplomacy. He serves as director of DePaul's Center for Religion, Culture and Community. A native of El Paso, Texas, Tirres earned his A.B. from Princeton University, M.T.S. from Harvard Divinity School, and Ph.D. from Harvard University. Prior to his seventeen-year tenure at DePaul, he taught at Harvard University, Harvey Mudd College, Claremont Graduate University, and Catholic Theological Union.

Tirres's scholarship centers on liberating spiritualities emerging in the Americas through prophetic religious articulations and everyday human creativity. His interdisciplinary approach draws on philosophical pragmatism, Latin American liberation theology, U.S. Latine theology, ritual studies, decolonial thought, women of color feminisms, and critical pedagogy. His major publications include the monograph The Aesthetics and Ethics of Faith: A Dialogue between Liberationist and Pragmatic Thought (Oxford University Press, 2014), which explores aesthetic and ethical dimensions of faith praxis. Forthcoming works are Liberating Spiritualities: Reimagining Faith in the Américas (Fordham University Press, 2025) and the co-edited volume Religion in the Américas: Tran-hemispheric and Transcultural Approaches (University of New Mexico Press, 2025). Notable articles include “Spiritual Healing at the Border: Lessons in Art, Culture, and Education,” the 2022 John Dewey Memorial Lecture published in Education & Culture (2022); “Popular Ritual as Liberating Pedagogy” in Latino/a Theology and the Bible (2021); and “Witnessing the Seeds of Liberation: Immigrant Detention and Pedagogical Encounter” in ReVista (2021).

Recognized as an award-winning teacher, Tirres has received prestigious fellowships and grants from the Ford Foundation, Hispanic Theological Initiative, Louisville Institute, Fund for Theological Education, Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion, and Harvard University's Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning. He is an active scholar in professional organizations, serving as president-elect of the Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians of the U.S. (ACHTUS), and a member of the American Academy of Religion (AAR) and the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy (SAAP). Tirres has delivered distinguished public lectures, including the Westervelt Lectures at Austin Seminary, and contributed to DePaul’s initiatives such as drafting the Land Acknowledgement Statement and co-leading faculty facilitation for mission and ministry programs.