Petra Kuivala

Petra Kuivala, Doctor of Theology, works as an Assistant Professor of Global Christianity at the School of Theology, University of Eastern Finland. Dr. Kuivala’s research and teaching intersect with the study of religion and theology, history, Latin American studies, and Cuban studies. Within the broader framework of global Catholicism, the focus of Kuivala’s research is on 20th century Catholicism in Latin America, especially Cuba, the Cuban Revolution, and socialist society.

Dr. Kuivala’s work encompasses both institutional histories and historiographies, including Catholic institutions and ideas, and lived religion, material religion, and the history of lived experience. Her research draws on archives, oral histories, and material sources. Most recently, Kuivala has written about Catholicism as a global phenomenon and network, religious material culture and lived religion in Cuba, and religious moral authority confronting totalitarian state power in Latin America. When working on her doctoral dissertation (2019), Kuivala became the first scholar to access the previously unstudied archives of the Catholic Church in Cuba dating to the socialist period.

Dr. Kuivala received her D.Th. from the University of Helsinki. Previously, Dr. Kuivala has worked as a postdoctoral researcher of Area and Cultural Studies at the Faculty of Art and as a doctoral researcher at the Faculty of Theology, University of Helsinki. She has also held appointments as a Visiting Scholar and an Associate at the Department of History, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, at Harvard University (2020–2023) and as a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at the Cuban Research Institute, Steven J. Green School of International and Public Affairs, at Florida International University (2016–2017).