# Mayra Rivera ![Mayra Rivera 2017](/sites/g/files/omnuum4371/files/styles/hwp_1_1__720x720_scale/public/mayrarivera/files/mr.png?itok=_V4W0oZ5) **RIVERA** is Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Religion and Latinx Studies at Harvard Divinity School and Director of the Humanities Program at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies. She served as [president of the American Academy of Religion](https://aarweb.org/AARMBR/AARMBR/Who-We-Are-/AAR-Presidents.aspx) in 2022. Rivera works at the intersections between religion, literature, and theories of coloniality, race and gender—with particular attention to Caribbean thought. Her most recent book, [Poetics of the Flesh](https://www.dukeupress.edu/Poetics-of-the-Flesh/?viewby=title) (2015), explores how social discourses become materialized in human bodies, by analyzing theological, philosophical, and political descriptions of “flesh.” Rivera is currently writing a book that explores the contributions of Caribbean history and literature to discussion of climate change that take seriously how colonialty has been shaping the Earth. Other notable publications include, [The Touch of Transcendence](http://www.amazon.com/The-Touch-Transcendence-Postcolonial-Theology/dp/0664230733) (2007), which explores the relationship between models of divine otherness and ideas about interhuman difference. She is also co-editor, with Stephen Moore, of [Planetary Loves: Spivak, Postcoloniality, and Theology](http://www.amazon.com/Planetary-Loves-Postcoloniality-Transdisciplinary-Theological/dp/082323326X) (2010) and, with Catherine Keller and Michael Nausner, of [Postcolonial Theologies: Divinity and Empire](http://www.amazon.com/Postcolonial-Theologies-Divinity-Catherine-Keller/dp/082723001X) (2004). Please contact faculty assistant, Ani Kalousdian, , for a copy of Mayra Rivera's CV.