Rate My Professor Nathalia IMPERATORI-LEE

Natalia M. Imperatori-Lee served as Professor of Religious Studies and Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at Manhattan University. She earned a B.A. in Theology from Fordham University in 1998, an M.A. in Constructive Studies from the University of Chicago in 2000, and a Ph.D. in Systematic Theology from the University of Notre Dame in 2007. Dr. Imperatori-Lee's research interests focus on Catholic ecclesiology, particularly the intersection of ecclesial identity with feminist and Latinx Catholic theologies, as well as sex and gender studies and testimonial justice. She taught courses including RELS 110: The Nature and Experience of Religion, RELS 202: U.S. Latino Religions, Vatican II, feminist theology, sexuality and the sacred, and women in Western religion. She also coordinated the Catholic Studies minor, served on the Board of Directors of the Dorothy Day Center, and advised the Women and Gender Resource Center and Pride Center.

Dr. Imperatori-Lee authored influential books such as Cuéntame: Narrative in the Ecclesial Present (Orbis Books, 2018), which reorients Catholic ecclesiology toward historical ambiguity and marginalized narratives; Women and the Church: From Devil’s Gateway to Disciples (Paulist Press, 2024), an overview of feminist theology for undergraduates; and Bearers of an Idle Tale: Women’s Authority in the Credibility Economy (Paulist Press, 2025), stemming from her Madeleva Lecture in Spirituality. Her articles have been published in Theological Studies, The Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, and CTSA Proceedings, addressing theological mansplaining, complementarity's perils, Mariology in Latinx communities, and Amoris Laetitia. She contributed to America and Commonweal, served on the boards of the Catholic Theological Society of America and the Academy of Catholic Theologians of the US, and spoke frequently at colleges, parishes, and panels on women in the church, appearing in media like CNN. After nearly two decades at Manhattan University, she became Associate Professor of Systematics at Fordham University in 2025.