Gustavo Gutiérrez Research Awards
Newly launched in 2025, Gustavo Gutiérrez Research Awards honor the life and legacy of Rev. Gustavo Gutiérrez, O.P. (1928–2024) by supporting projects in theology, history, and the social sciences that engage or take inspiration from Gutiérrez’s work on the preferential option for the poor.
Considered by many to be the father of Latin American liberation theology, Father Gutiérrez served as a member of the faculty of theology at the University of Notre Dame from 2001 until 2018. A Peruvian Catholic priest and renowned theologian, he devoted his pastoral and intellectual work to a biblically inspired vision of integral liberation of the poor. His pioneering theological methodology, which takes a commitment to the poor as the starting point for reflection, is widely recognized as one of the most significant contributions to Christian theology in the 20th century. Theology, Gutiérrez said, “should help us to understand the relationship between the life of faith and the urgent need to build a society that is humane and just.”
Gutiérrez published numerous books and articles, including what is recognized as the foundational text in the field of liberation theology, Teología de la liberación: Perspectivas (1971)/A Theology of Liberation: History, Politics, and Salvation (1973). He held teaching posts throughout North America and Europe in addition to Peru, where he also founded the Instituto Bartolomé de las Casas, an interdisciplinary research, teaching, and publishing institute committed to liberation and human development in Peruvian society. Gutiérrez received numerous distinctions, awards, and honorary degrees over his lifetime in recognition of his exceptional scholarship and his tireless commitment to the preferential option for the poor.
This program is open to scholars at Notre Dame as well as those outside the University. The Cushwa Center invites applications from faculty, independent scholars, postdoctoral scholars, and graduate students. Scholars whose projects are chosen for support will receive a cash award of $3,000.
Priority research areas
Gutiérrez Awards recognize and support works in progress either directly related to Gustavo Gutiérrez’s theology or broadly taking inspiration from his work on the option for the poor. Priority research areas include, but are not limited to:
Gutiérrez’s theological legacy
Gutiérrez is widely recognized as one of the most consequential theologians of the 20th century. The Cushwa Center seeks projects engaging the sources, development, and reception of Gutiérrez’s own thought and that of related theological movements and their ongoing relevance for the Church and society in the Americas.
Historical studies
Gutiérrez called on the academy to attend to voices from “the underside of history.” The Cushwa Center invites projects that explore the history of Christianity in the Americas from the perspective of poor and excluded communities.
Interdisciplinary engagement with the reality of poverty
Gutiérrez encouraged an interdisciplinary approach to theological reflection. Poverty, he often pointed out, is a complex global reality with political, economic, social, and cultural dimensions. To effectively analyze and confront it, theology requires the tools and insights of the social sciences. In recognition of this priority in his theological methodology, the Cushwa Center welcomes projects involving either qualitative or quantitative research that engage the multifaceted reality of poverty in the Americas.
Application process, notifications, and award conditions
Please submit an application via the link below with the following documents attached:
1. current curriculum vitae;
2. 1,000-word project description, including plans for publication.
Applications must be submitted with required materials by December 31, 2026. Applicants will be notified of outcomes by early March. Award recipients will be asked to:
1. provide the Cushwa Center a short progress report within 18 months on the research supported by the award;
2. acknowledge the award in any publications resulting from supported research and inform the center of such publications.