Oswald John Nira, PhD
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR AND CHAIR DEPARTMENT OF RELIGIOUS STUDIES AND THEOLOGY


Contact Information:
Office: FAHU 111
E-Mail: nirao@lake.ollusa.edu   
Phone: 210-434-6711, 2254

Background: 
I have been involved in Catholic academics and faith formation since 1981, teaching in small Catholic colleges and college preparatory schools in Texas and Washington D.C., as well as serving as a pastoral associate in Central and South Texas Mexican American Catholic parishes. 

With this background, I decided to pursue rigorous graduate theological work at the Catholic University in America over ten years ago.  I find that consideration of the faith from a particular context to be not only fascinating, but also enriching to my own understanding and practice of my Catholic faith.  I successfully defended my dissertation on Mexican American Lay Leadership in the Catholic Church and was awarded a doctoral degree in Spring 2007.

My family is from Hondo, Texas, and my father was an enlisted career serviceman in the Marine Corps, so I moved around all over the continental United States, growing up not only in Hondo, but also Colorado, South Carolina and California.  After my father retired from the Marine Corps, he decided to enter the diaconate program, and with the commitment and support from my mother, he was ordained a deacon in the Diocese of Austin.  This foundation affords me with a rich experience with which to consider the life of faith and the responsibilities to neighbor and community, and I feel blessed to be teaching at Our Lady of the Lake University. 

Areas of Interest:
Mexican American/Latino Spirituality and Theology
Catholicism
History of the Catholic Church
Ecclesiology
Theology of Marriage
American Religious History
Inter-religious Dialogue
Asian Spirituality

Education:
MA and PhD, The Catholic University of America, Washington D.C.
BA, St. Edward’s University, Austin, Texas
 
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