Building a Moral Economy: Water for All.

 Spring 2026

Dr. Christiana Zenner is an anti-colonial feminist working at the intersections of theology and science, the environmental humanities, and ecological ethics. Dr. Zenner is the author of Just Water: Theology, Ethics, and Fresh Water Crises (2014, rev. ed. 2018), co-editor of two volumes on bioethics and sustainability (Expanding Horizons in Bioethics, 2005; Just Sustainability, 2015), and a forthcoming special issue of Religions on religion and extraction who has alsao published nearly 20 peer-reviewed articles on fresh water values, climate justice, bioethics, religious ethics, and theology and sciences. A prominent interpreter of Laudato Si’, Dr. Zenner’s next book is a feminist and anti-colonial engagement with that document and its legacies. She is a founding member of the Climate Justice interest group at the Society of Christian Ethics and the Religion and Extraction Seminar at the American Academy of Religion. 

Dr. Zenner is widely recognized in the academy, the ecclesial world, and beyond as a leading thinker around the power and perils of water from theological perspectives. Her book on water justice has received notable and strong positive attention and has been widely used in both graduate and undergraduate courses.  In 2013 she created two short, animated videos with TED-Ed and artist Jeremy Collins on fresh water scarcity, values, and ethics. Together, these video lessons have received over one million views and tens of thousands of question-answer engagements on the TED-Ed platform and YouTube. 

Dr. Zenner’s many public-facing engagements include authored op-eds, articles, or educational materials in the Washington Post, The New Republic, MSNBC, CNN.com, TED-Ed, and more; interview features on Public Radio International syndicated shows; and expert quotes in several New York Times articles. An energetic and committed teacher, Dr. Zenner is currently Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies in Theology at Fordham University-Lincoln Center, where she teaches courses such as Anthropocene Values, Human Nature After Darwin, Bioethics and Black Feminist Thought, and Religion and Ecology. In 2013 she was named one of Microsoft’s “Heroes in Education.” Dr. Zenner holds a Ph.D. in Religious Studies (Ethics) from Yale University and a B.A. in Human Biology from Stanford University.