Nancy Dallavalle

Nancy Dallavalle [dal-uh-VAL-ee] is Associate Professor and Chair of Religious Studies and Faculty Facilitator for Mission and Identity at Fairfield University in Fairfield, Connecticut. She received a bachelors degree in music from Benedictine College in Atchison, Kan., and a masters degree in theology from Saint John's University in Collegeville, Minn. In 1993 she received the Ph.D. in Theology from the University of Notre Dame, writing on the doctrine on the Trinity under the direction of the late Catherine Mowry LaCugna.

Professor Dallavalle's current work focuses on the meeting of feminist thought and Catholic theology, work for which she received a Lilly Endowment 1999-2000 Christian Faith and Life Sabbatical Grant from The Louisville Institute. She has published scholarly articles in The Irish Theological Quarterly, Horizons and Modern Theology, and has contributed numerous book chapters to volumes on Catholic theology.

She speaks to both general and scholarly audiences on topics such as the Church in the public square, marriage, women in Catholic thought and, during the interregnum between Pope John Paul II and the conclave to elect Pope Benedict XVI, appeared on CNN and CBS as well as in newspapers and on the radio.

She has given papers at the annual meetings of the Catholic Theological Society of America, the American Academy of Religion, and the College Theology Society, and has served these national scholarly groups through membership on steering committees ranging from the Women’s Seminar in Constructive Theology to the Karl Rahner Society. She has served on the National Jesuit Seminar and was a member of the Diocesan Pastoral Council for the Diocese of Bridgeport, and is currently on the national board of directors for both Collegium and the Liturgical Press.