Kimberly Vrudny is professor of systematic theology at the University of St. Thomas. She has been on faculty since 2001 and teaches in the areas of theological aesthetics, theology and the arts, and political theology.
In her most recent book, Beauty's Vineyard: A Theological Aesthetic of Anguish and Anticipation, she addresses religious questions raised by contemporary social realists and constructs a socially engaged theology of Beauty. She was on sabbatical in South Africa, Thailand, and Mexico during academic year 2009-2010 to create "30 Years/30 Lives," a photography project documenting thirty people impacted by HIV/AIDS to mark the thirtieth anniversary of the pandemic. She has been recognized by her peers for excellence in teaching, receiving the “Global Citizenship Award” in 2010, awarded by the office of international education, and the “Faculty Award in Service-Learning” in 2006, awarded by the office of service-learning. She served on the staff of ARTS: The Arts in Religious and Theological Studies for twenty-one years (1993-2009; 2013-2018), the final five years as the journal's senior editor. She is the author of:
- Beauty’s Vineyard: A Theological Aesthetic of Anguish and Anticipation (Collegeville: The Liturgical Press, 2016);
- Friars, Scribes, and Corpses: A Marian Confraternal Reading of The Mirror of Human Salvation (Leuven: Peeters, 2010);
- Visual Theology: Forming and Transforming the Community Through the Arts (Collegeville: The Liturgical Press, 2009), co-edited with Robin Jensen;
- Arts, Theology and the Church: New Intersections (Cleveland: Pilgrim Press, 2005), co-edited with Wilson Yates; and
- 30 Years / 30 Lives: Documenting a Pandemic (Seattle: CreateSpace, 2010).