Curran Center News
New Scholar Essay Prize for Catholic Studies
![Dr. Raúl E. Zegarra](/media/home/departments-centers-and-offices/curran-center/60_1.jpeg)
The winner of the fourth annual New Scholar Essay Prize for Catholic Studies in the Americas is Dr. Raúl E. Zegarra, for his essay “The Preferential Option of the Poor: Liberation Theology, Pentecostalism, and the New Forms of Sacralization” which appeared in the European Journal of Sociology/Archives Européennes de Sociologie in 2023. Dr. Zegarra's essay revisits the alleged demise of liberation theology in Latin America, with a particular focus on the situation in Peru. Amidst social and ecclesial changes in the wake of Vatican II (1962-65), Zegarra discerns the ways civil-society organizations have become new sacred spaces. Zegarra serves as a Teaching Fellow at the University of Chicago Divinity School. Click here to find a full-text version of the essay.