Dr. Alexandre A. Martins

Dr. Alexandre A. MartinsMarquette University

Marquette Hall, 330

MilwaukeeWI53201United States of America(414) 288-3165alexandre.martins@marquette.edu

Curriculum Vitae

Assistant Professor

Theology Department (Theological Ethics)

Alexandre A. Martins (Ph.D. Marquette University, 2017, Post-Doctorate University of Coimbra, 2019), holds a joint position at Theology Department and College of Nursing. He specializes in health care ethics and social ethics, especially in the areas of public health, global health, Catholic social teaching, and liberation theology. He is also a scholar in philosophy of religion, specialized in the work of French philosopher Simone Weil. His scholarship has been broad. He has engaged in ethics, theology, and health care through a dialogue with anthropology, philosophy, epidemiology, and medical science, especially engaging with marginalized voices and addressing issues from the perspective of the poor.

Throughout his academic and activist life, he has acted as an advocate for universal health care coverage through grassroots and social movements as well as through his scholarship and publications. He is deeply engaged in bioethics and public health through social movements organized from marginalized communities, including a time when he served the Brazilian Bishops’ Conference as an adviser on issues of bioethics and pastoral care. Through humanitarian organizations and academic projects, he has also served in areas marked by poverty and lack of adequate health care assistance, such as Brazil, Bolivia, Haiti, and Uganda. These activities are projects in global health that he has developed with partners and committed to Catholic values, diversity and the empowerment of the poor.

His work and publications have international recognition. He has spoken in conferences and led seminars in different countries, especially as a visiting scholar at Saint Camillus University in São Paulo, Brazil and at Camillianum - Istituto Internazionale di Teologia Pastorale Sanitaria of Pontifical Lateran University in Rome, Italy. He also serves on Planning Committee of Catholic Theological Ethics in the World Church as Regional Coordinator for Latin American and Caribbean Region, on the Academic Committee of the International Association of Catholic Bioethics, leads the project Polis & Hope, is a very active member of Brazilian Society of Moral Theology and serves in the Ethics Committee of Ascension Columbia St. Mary’s Hospital in Milwaukee.

Courses Taught

• Bioethics for Health Care
• Medical Ethics
• Theology and Global Health
• Catholic Social Thought
• Liberation Theology
• Simone Weil

Research Interests

Currently, his research interests focus on Catholic social ethics and health care ethics with special concentration in public and global health. Two of the projects he is leading are: (1) Community Participation in Public Health Decision-Making and Human Rights: Neoliberal Policies and Universal Health Care Coverage in Brazil, and (2) Confronting bioethical issues raised by COVID-19 and how the pandemic has been addressed.

Publications

He has published several articles and books, selected publications are:

Covid-19, Política e Fé: Bioética em diálogo na realidade enlouquecida (São Paulo, SP: O Gênio Criador, 2020)

The Cry of the Poor: Liberation Ethics and Justice in Health Care (Lanham, MD.: Lexington Books, 2020)

Introdução à Cristologia Latino-Americana: Cristologia no Encontro com a Realidade Pobre e Plural da América Latina (São Paulo: Paulus, 2014).

A Pobreza e a Graça: Experiência de Deus em Meio ao Sofrimento em Simone Weil (São Paulo: Paulus, 2013).

“Ethical Comportment in Health Promotion” in Health Promotion: Translating Evidence to Practice, ed. Marilyn Frenn and Diane K. Whitehead (Philadelphia: F.A. Davis Company, 2021): 320-332.

With Sydney Allen, “Litigation to Access Health Services: Ally or Enemy of Global Public Health?”  Annals of Global Health, 86, 1 (2020),14, 1-15. http://doi.org/10.5334/aogh.2760

“Ética Social Católica e Saúde Pública: Em Busca de uma Bioética Libertadora” in Perspectiva Teológica 51, no. 3 (Sept./Dec. 2019): 461-480. https://doi.org/10.20911/21768757v51n3p461/2019

“From Vatican II to Amoris Laetitia: The Catholic Social and Sexual Ethics Division and a Way of Ecclesial Interconnection” in Fronteiras 2, no. 2 (July/Dec. 2019): 69-89. https://doi.org/10.25247/2595-3788.2019.v2n2.p69-89

“Simone Weil’s Radical Ontology of Rootedness: Natural and Supernatural Justice” in Praxis: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Faith and Justice (Online Frist, Dec. 10, 2019).

“The Leftist Political Parties in Light of Simone Weil’s Criticism: The Workers’ Party Care” in Síntese: Revista de Filosofia 46, no. 145 (May/August 2019): 283-300. https://doi.org/10.20911/21769389v46n145p47/2019

“Laudato Si’: Integral Ecology and Preferential Option for the Poor” in Journal of Religious Ethics 43, no. 3 (2018): 410-424. https://doi.org/10.1111/jore.12224

“Immigration and Vulnerable Bodies: Migrants and Health Risks in Brazil” in Living With(out) Borders: Catholic Theological Ethics on the Migrations of Peoples, ed. Agnes M. Brazal and Maria Teresa Davila (Marykroll: Orbis Books, 2016), 91-100.

Additional Information

Office Hours - Spring 2023

• TTh 1:00-2:30 and by appointment