Dr. Kristine Suna-Koro

Dr. Kristine Suna-Koro (BTh, MTh, STM, PhD, Emory University, 2010) is a Professor of Theology. She is a Latvian-American diasporic theologian working at the intersection of postcolonialism, sacramental and liturgical studies as well as migration and diaspora discourses. At Xavier, she teaches in fields of modern historical theology, theology of migration, liturgical-sacramental studies, pastoral theology as well as diversity studies. She is the author of "In Counterpoint: Diaspora, Postcoloniality, and Sacramental Theology" (Pickwick, 2017) as well as numerous articles and book chapters on sacramentality and liturgy, constructive postcolonial theology, diasporic imagination, theological aesthetics, and theology of migration. 

Her recent publications include:

“Global Migration, Local Encounters: Explorations in Interfaith Pedagogy,” The Meaning of My Neighbor’s Faith: Interreligious Reflections on Immigration, eds. Laura Alexander and Alexander Y. Hwang (Lexington Books, 2018);

“Confession of Sin and the Sinned-Against: An Inquiry from a Lutheran Perspective,” Liturgy: Journal of the Liturgical Conference 34:1 (2019): 21-29. 

“Liturgy and Lament: Postcolonial Reflections from the Midst of a Global Refugee Crisis,” Liturgy: Journal of the Liturgical Conference 34:2 (2019): 31-40. 

“God, Strangers, and Jugs of Water: Taking Matthew 25 to Immigration Courts in the ‘First Worlds’,” Dialog 58:4 (December 2019): 242-245.

“Global Migration, Local Encounters: Explorations in Interfaith Pedagogy,” The Meaning of My Neighbor’s Faith: Interreligious Reflections on Immigration, eds. Laura Alexander and Alexander Y. Hwang (Lexington Books/Rowman and Littlefield, 2019), 119-132.

“Liturgy, Language, and Diaspora: Some Reflections on Inclusion as Integration by a Migratory Liturgical Magpie,” Liturgy with a Difference: Beyond Inclusion in the Liturgical Assembly, eds. Stephen Burns and Bryan Cones (London: SCM Press, 2019), 101-114.

“Global Migration and Liturgical Imagination: Where Doxology Meets Righteous Action,” Journal of Religion and Society, Supplement 21 Religion and Justice, eds. Ronald A. Simkins and Zachary B. Smith (2020, ISSN 1941-8450): 1-16.

“Liturgy and the Age of Migration: Toward a Liturgy Without Borders,” Christian Theology in the Age of Migration: Implications for World Christianity, ed. Peter C. Phan (Lexington Books, 2020), 239-254.

“Revisiting the Sacrament of the Stranger: Reflections on Migration, Invisibility, and Postcolonial Imagination,” Journal of the European Society of Women in Theological Research, Vol. 28 (2020): 37-63.

“Grappling with Lives on the Move from Theological Perspectives: Toward an Un-alienation of ‘Others’,” Dialog 60:3 (September 2021): 258-261.

“Virtually Baroque: A Postcolonial Interlude on the Salvific Opacity of the Divine Eros,” Erotic Faith: Desire, Mystery, and Transformation in the Incarnational Theology of Wendy Farley, ed. Mari Kim (Eugene, OR: Pickwick, 2022), 84-101.

“Is it a Tenebrae Moment Again? On Crisis in Liturgical Theology as an Opportunity for Renewal,” Liturgy: Journal of the Liturgical Conference 38:1 (January, 2023): 52-58.

“Sacraments and Sacramentality: Toward a Postcolonial Pluriverse with a Decolonial Twist,” T&T Clark Handbook of Sacraments and Sacramentality, eds. Martha Moore-Keish and James Farwell (T&T Clark, 2023).

“Toward Decolonizing Penitential Rites: A Diasporic and Ecumenical Exploration of Worship on (Still) Colonized Land,” Decolonial Horizons: Reimagining Theology, Ecumenism and Sacramental Praxis, eds. Raimundo C. Barreto and Vladimir Latinovic (Palgrave/Springer, forthcoming in 2023).

Among the recent scholarly activities beyond Xavier University include participation in the Center of Theological Inquiry, Princeton, NJ, Global Concerns – Religion and Migration inquiry with a presentation on liturgy, migration, and justice (May 2018); the lecture at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, “Sacraments and Postcolonial Planetarity: Reimagining the Sacramental Signature of All Things in the Era of Environmental Degradation” (October 2018). Currently she is working on a book manuscript exploring the intersection of global migration, liturgical political theology and justice from postcolonial perspectives. 

Dr. Suna-Koro currently serves as the Co-Editor-in-Chief of Dialog: A Journal of Theology (Wiley): https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/15406385

From 2017-2019 Dr. Suna-Koro facilitated the collaboration between Xavier University and Cincinnati’s Nancy and David Wolf Holocaust and Humanity Center to offer a summer course for students and educators “Holocaust Studies for Educators.” 

Over the recent years, Dr. Suna-Koro has served as the convener of the Critical Theories and Liturgical Studies seminar at the North American Academy of Liturgy (NAAL) (2017-2019) and as the Delegate for Membership on the Academy Committee of NAAL (2019-2021). At the American Academy of Religion (AAR), she serves as the Co-Chair of the Religions, Borders, and Immigration Seminar. It promotes interreligious and interdisciplinary collaboration on global migration from theological perspectives by exploring how such theological inquiries begin to reshape the interpretations of the Ultimate reality as it is envisioned in various religious traditions in dialogue with diverse traditions of ethics and pastoral responses to the planetary refugee crisis.

As a Lutheran pastor, Dr. Suna-Koro has served the diasporic Latvian Lutheran communities in Great Britain, Germany, and the United States. In addition to her pastoral work she has served on the Board of the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) and continues to collaborate with the local Greater Cincinnati organizations supporting the integration of refugees and migrants through teaching a community engaged service learning courses such as THEO 358 Immigration, Theology, and Ethics, THEO 607 Gospel & the Global Refugee Crisis, and THEO 219 Jesuits, Sacraments & Justice.