Gaston Espinosa

Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, 2002-2004
Office: Crowe Hall, 1860 Campus Drive Road, Porch
Phone: (847) 491-3080 Email: gespinosa@northwestern.edu

GASTON ESPINOSA (Ph.D., University of California, Santa Barbara) has research interests in Latino history and religions. He is preparing three manuscripts with Virgilio Elizondo and Jesse Miranda that will unveil the findings of the Hispanic Churches in American Public Life (HCAPL) research project, Latino Religions and Civic Activism in the United States (Oxford); Latino Religions and Politics in American Public Life (Oxford); and Latino Religions and Politics in the American Public Square. The HCAPL project is the largest study in U.S. history on Latino religions and politics and examines the impact of religion on political and civic engagement among 3,000 Latinos across the United States and Puerto Rico. For more information, visit www.hcapl.org.

Espinosa has a passion for teaching and making his classes thought provoking and intellectually stimulating. He has offered courses on religion, race and ethnicity; religion and pop culture; pentecostal and evangelical movements; and global Christianity. At UCSB he won the Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award in the Humanities and Fine Arts. In Spring 2003 he will teach Latino Religions and World Christianity.

Last May Espinosa spoke at the national Hispanic presidential breakfast in Washington, DC with President Bush, Senator Joseph Lieberman and Senator Rick Santorum. In recognition of his scholarly contribution to the Latino community and American public life, the Generations Center of Princeton named him one of the nation's 100 Positive Men of Color.