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 as well as Anthropocene conceptualizations intersects with ecological theory, religious ecologies, developments in the earth sciences, and the ecological turn in Catholic social teaching. In all of her work, she strives to grapple with the deep patterns—both conceptual and institutional—that shape cultural-religious moralities and frames of ecological-ethical perception; to demonstrate rigorous and responsible multidisciplinary approaches to contemporary eco-social realities, especially those pertaining to fresh water justice and climate change; and to articulate constructive, anti-colonial, intersectional feminist ways forward. 

Dr. Zenner is the author of Beyond Laudato Si': Ecotheology, Equitable Futures, and the Papal Turn to the Earth (July 2026) and Water for All: Building a More Economy (November 2026) as well as Just Water: Theology, Ethics, and Global Fresh Water Crises (Orbis Books, second edition, 2018; first edition, 2014). She is co-editor of a special scholarly journal issue on religion in extractive zones, two volumes on sustainability and bioethics, and is the author of more than 18 peer-reviewed articles.  

Courses that Dr. Zenner teaches at Fordham include: Anthropocenes: Sciences, Fictions, and Ethical Futures; Ecological Ethics; Theology and Contemporary Science; Faith and Critical Reason; Human Nature After Darwin; Black Feminisms and Bioethics. 

In 2026-2027, Dr. Zenner is on leave from Fordham and is the Teilhard de Chardin Visiting Professor at Loyola University Chicago (Fall 2026) and a researcher on waters and Anthropocene imaginations at the Käte Hamburger Centre for Apocalyptic and Post-Apocalyptic Studies at the University of Heidelberg (Spring 2027).

Dr. Zenner 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. She is headquartered at Fordham's Lincoln Center campus, in the heart of New York City.

BA, Stanford University (Human Biology, 2001)

MAR, Yale Divinity School (Ethics, 2005; summa cum laude and recipient of the high scholarship award)

PhD, Yale University (Religious Studies, 2011; with distinction)

Fresh water values and ethics; Anthropocene ideations; ecological ethics and developments in the earth sciences; anti-colonial ecofeminisms, Laudato Si’, and the ecological turn in Catholic social teaching; feminist science studies and comparative religious responses to evolutionary theory and contemporary geology.

Water for All: Building a Moral Economy (Fortress Press, 2026).

Beyond Laudato Si': Ecotheologies, Equitable Futures, and the Papal Turn to the Earth (Fordham Press, 2026). 

"Religion in Extractive Zones: Methods, Imaginaries, Solidarities." With Terra Schwerin Rowe and Lisa Sideris. Religions (2025), 16(7). https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16070820.

"Valuing Fresh Waters." 5,000-word survey and evaluation article. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: WATER (2019), 6:e1343. https://doi.org/10.1002/wat2.1343.

Just Water: Theology, Ethics, and Global Fresh Water Crises (Orbis Books, 2018; first edition, 2014).

"Commentary on Laudato Si'." 18,000-word commentary on the encyclical Laudato Si': On Care for Our Common Home. Chapter 20 in Kenneth Himes, ed., Modern Catholic Social Teaching: Commentaries and Interpretations (Georgetown University Press, 2018).

“Water Ethics on a Human-Dominated Planet: Rationality, Context, and Values in Global Governance.” 4,000-word literature review and analysis, co-authored with Jeremy J. Schmidt (Harvard University). Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: WATER, Vol. 1 (6), November/December 2014: 533-547.