Dr Travis LaCouter
Research Associate
Travis LaCouter (DPhil Oxon.) is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the department of Religious Studies at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts (USA). He teaches classes on modern Catholic theology, contemporary Catholic spirituality, and the theology of protest. His first book, Balthasar and Prayer, will be published by T&T Clark in December 2021.
Broadly, Travis is interested in retrieval from an intersectional perspective. His current research project puts critical theory since Foucault into conversation with modern theological authors (including Pope Francis, Karl Rahner, and others) on the topic of parrhesia, or the ancient right to ‘say anything’. This engagement not only signals new and constructive directions for Catholic political theology, but also brings the resources of contemporary critical theory to bear on a key biblical concept. He is also (with Luigi Gioia and Philip McCosker) compiling and editing a collection of essays on the interrelated topics of clericalism and sexuality.
In addition to his scholarly work, Travis’ criticism has appeared in Commonweal, The Baffler, and US Catholic Magazine.
Recent work
Editor and convener, Syndicate symposium on M. Eggemeier and P. Fritz, Send Lazarus: Catholicism and the Crises of Neoliberalism (Fordham, 2020) (July 29, 2021).
“‘The Kernel of Politics’ for von Balthasar: Preliminary Resources for a Theology of Protest” in Louvain Studies 44:1 (2021), pp. 82-96.
“We Need to Talk,” New Ways Ministry (July 23, 2021).
“A Certain Boldness,” Los Angeles Review of Books (December 13, 2020).