Nichole M. Flores

Associate Fellow

Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia

Nichole Flores is associate professor of religious studies at the University of Virginia where she is also the Director of the Catholic Studies Initiative, Co-Director of the Forum on Religion and Democracy, and Director of the Health, Ethics, and Society Program. She researches the relationship between religion, aesthetics, and democracy with emphasis on the Catholic and Latine theological and ethical traditions.

Dr. Flores is author of The Aesthetics of Solidarity: Our Lady of Guadalupe and American Democracy (Georgetown University Press, 2021). She has also published essays in the Journal of Religious Ethics, the Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics, and Modern Theology among other academic journals and edited volumes. Her research on La Virgen de Guadalupe and democracy has been profiled on the popular podcasts Things Not Seen and Know Your Enemy and featured on CBS Saturday Morning.

In 2015, Dr. Flores was honored with the Catherine Mowry LaCugna Award for best essay in academic theology by a junior scholar from the Catholic Theological Society of America. Dr. Flores earned an A.B. in government from Smith College, an M.Div. from Yale University, and a Ph.D. in theological ethics from Boston College.

Originally from Denver, Colorado, she lives in Crozet, Virginia with her husband and two sons.

The Aesthetics of Solidarity: Our Lady of Guadalupe and American Democracy. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2021.

“Rootedness on the Slippery Earth: Migration in a Time of Social Upheaval,” in Religion Justice and Social Upheaval, eds. Matthew T. Eggemeier, Peter Joseph Fritz, and Karen V. Guth. New York, NY: Fordham University Press, 2022: 112-123.

“Mercy as a Public Virtue,” Journal of Religious Ethics 48, no. 3. September 2020: 458-472.

“Ethics from Marginalized Perspectives,” Reimagining the Moral Life: On Lisa Sowle Cahill’s Contributions to Christian Ethics, eds. KC Choi, Sarah Moses, and Andrea Vicini. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2020: 149-160.

“Capitalism and the Face of the Oppressed: A Response to Kathryn Tanner and Devin Singh.” Modern Theology. Forthcoming 2020.

“A Response to Emily Reimer-Berry’s ‘Another Pro-Life Movement is Possible’ – Power, Politics, and the Pro-Life Movement .” Proceedings of the Catholic Theological Society of America. 2019;74: 39-42.

“Greed.” Naming Our Sins: How Recognizing the Seven Deadly Vices Can Renew the Sacrament of Reconciliation. David Cloutier and Jana Bennett, eds. Washington, D.C. The Catholic University of America Press; 2019. pp. 73-88.