Ely Orrego-Torres
Born and raised in Chile, Ely Orrego-Torres is a PhD candidate in political science at Northwestern University. She is currently a visiting PhD student at the Centre de recherches internationales (CERI) at Sciences Po, Paris. She was a Northwestern Buffett Institute Global Impacts Graduate Fellow; a Social Science Research Council Religion, Spirituality, and Democratic Renewal (RSDR) Fellow; and a Mellon Cluster Fellow in Critical Theory. Previously, she earned a BA in political science from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (2011) and an MA in philosophy and contemporary thought from Diego Portales University (2018).
Her research agenda intertwines political theory and international relations to address global questions on religion and politics. She uses an interdisciplinary approach that relies on ethnographic methods and critical theories to account for narratives of religious freedom and secularism in the present historical context. Her dissertation studies the politics of religious freedom and secularism in the Americas by devoting attention to transnational and regional networks, particularly transnational religious networks with an Evangelical-Protestant background participating in the Organization of American States (OAS). She is also interested in ecofeminist political theologies and transnational solidarities in Latin America. Her work will soon be published in Social Compass and Philosophy and Global Affairs.
Featured Work: “Global Challenges of Secularism and Religious Freedom”; “Towards the Possibility of an Ecofeminist Political Theology” (in Spanish); “The Kairós of Ecological Justice: Approaches from the Global South”
Upcoming Projects: “Beyond Boundaries: Exploring Transnational Ecofeminist Political Theologies and Solidarities in Latin America.” (forthcoming in Philosophy and Global Affairs); “Imagining Ecopolis: Visions of Ecofeminist Political Theology and Ecocriticism in Latin America” (with Diego Rossello, forthcoming in Social Compass)