Amy Levad, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Theology, specializing in moral theology and Christian social ethics. Her primary areas of research are mass incarceration and the ethics of criminal legal systems, which are the focus of her two books. _Restorative Justice: Theories and Practices of Moral Imagination_(2011, LFB Publishing) explores alternatives to retributive justice and offers insight into processes of moral discernment in restorative justice practices. _Redeeming a Prison Society: A Liturgical and Sacramental Response to Mass Incarceration_ (2014, Fortress) proposes radical social and systemic reforms to confront mass incarceration, based in a Catholic ethic of communion and reconciliation. Dr. Levad has also published several articles and essays on these topics, as well as on faith-based community organizing, restorative justice, and ecological ethics. Her next project explores the role of Christian theology in creating and maintaining carceral institutions and practices in the United States from the early 19th century onward. Dr. Levad is also a co-founder of Breakdown Whiteness, a website collecting and disseminating information and resources on whiteness, racism, and white supremacy for white audiences.
In addition to foundational courses in theology, Dr. Levad regularly teaches courses on Incarceration, Love and Justice, Environmental Theology and Ethics, and Catholic Social Thought.
Redeeming a Prison Society: A Sacramental and Liturgical Response to Mass Incarceration (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2014).
Restorative Justice: Theories and Practices of Moral Imagination (New York: LFB Scholarly Publishing, 2011).
Articles
“Of Tragedies and Myths: Subsidiarity and Common-Pool Resource Institutions in Response to Environmental Degradation,” Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics 41.1 (Spring/Summer 2021): 37-54.
“Repairing the Breach: Faith-Based Community Organizing to Dismantle Mass Incarceration,” Religions 10.42 (January 2019): 1-20.
“Restorative and Transformative Justice in a Land of Mass Incarceration,” Journal of Moral Theology 5.2 (June 2016): 22-43.
“‘I Was in Prison and You Visited Me’: A Sacramental Approach to Rehabilitative and Restorative Criminal Justice,” Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics 31.2 (Fall/Winter 2011): 93-112.
Book Chapters
“Reformative Impulses: Christian Theology in the History of U.S. Carceral Institutions and Practices,” in The Business of Incarceration: Theological and Ethical Reflections on the Prison-Industrial Complex, ed. James McCarty, Sarah Farmer, and Justin Bronson Barringer (Eugene, OR: Cascade, forthcoming).
“Restorative Justice, the Lex Talionis, and Atonement: Scripture and Tradition on Responding to Harm,” in T & T Clark Handbook of Christian Ethics, ed. Tobias Winright (London: T&T Clark, 2020), 259-268.