Elizabeth O' Donnell Gandolfo and Laurel Marshall Potter
Elizabeth O’Donnell Gandolfo is the Edith B. and Arthur E. Earley Associate Professor of Catholic and Latin American Studies and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at Wake Forest University School of Divinity. A constructive feminist theologian rooted in the Catholic tradition, Liz’s teaching and research places Christian theology in conversation with human responses to vulnerability, suffering, violence, and oppression, especially in contexts of social injustice and ecological degradation. Gandolfo’s most recent publications include Ecomartyrdom in the Americas: Living and Dying for Our Common Home (Orbis, 2023) and the co-authored book Re-membering the Reign of God: The Decolonial Witness of El Salvador’s Church of the Poor (Lexington, 2022).
Laurel Marshall Potter teaches in the Theology Department at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota. Laurel’s research interests generally focus on the Latin American reception of Vatican II, liberation and de(s)colonial theologies, and the use of qualitative methods for constructive theological work; her current project explores connections between the Latin American reception of Sacrosanctum Concilium and the extraordinary liturigcal celebrations of marginal ecclesial communities in NuestrAmérica. Laurel is co-editor of Sigue porque la vida sigue (2020), a collection of interviews with intergenerational members of ecclesial base communities in El Salvador, and her work has appeared in scholarly and public outlets including Ecclesiology, the NACLA Report, and Geez magazine.
