Christiana Zenner

Christiana Zenner is Associate Professor of Theology, Science and Ethics in the Department of Theology at Fordham University, where she is affiliated faculty in Environmental Studies and American Studies. Her research into emerging and established fresh water ethics intersects with ecological theory, religious ecologies, developments in the earth sciences, and the ecological turn in Catholic social teaching. She lectures nationally and internationally on these topics and has provided analysis of contemporary topics in ecological ethics and religion and science in venues such as Public Radio International, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, The New Republic, the Washington Post, TED-Ed, MSNBC, and others.

Professor Zenner is the author of Just Water: Theology, Ethics, and Global Fresh Water Crises (second edition, Orbis Books, 2018; first edition, 2014) and co-editor of two volumes on sustainability and bioethics. Her peer-reviewed articles are published in venues such as Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: WATER, Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, Journal of Catholic Social Thought, Journal of Moral Theology, New Theology Review, and Journal of the Society for Christian Ethics.

Dr. Zenner teaches a range of undergraduate and graduate courses, including: Religion and Ecology, Human Nature After Darwin, Ecological Ethics, and Theology and Contemporary Science. She is headquartered at Fordham's Lincoln Center campus, in the heart of New York City.

Research Interests

Fresh water values and ethics; religious ecological ethics at the intersection of ecological theory and developments in the earth sciences; Laudato Si’ and the ecological turn in Catholic social teaching; feminist natural law theory; comparative religious responses to Darwin and evolutionary theory.