About
Marty Tomszak is currently a Lecturer of Religious Studies at Valparaiso University where he teaches courses in religious studies, theology, and liberationist ethics. He was also recently the recipient of a Visiting Researcher Grant at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven which served as a springboard for his upcoming monograph Time, Silence, and Yeast: A Song of Appreciation for Trappist Communities and Their Beer (Cascade Books).
Marty completed his Ph.D. at Loyola University of Chicago in the Integrative Studies in Ethics and Theology program with a concentration in systematic theology. His first monograph, Political Theology Based in Community: Dorothy Day, The Catholic Worker Movement, and Overcoming Otherness, focused on the potential practical implications the radical Catholic lay apostolate of Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin might have on the realm of post-structuralist political theology and their impact on the institutional Church in the twenty-first century.
The intersection between theology, continental philosophy, and radical community not only influence his research interests but shape the way in which he intertwines theory and praxis in his day-to-day life as he serves as director of the Fire for Food Drive, an initiative aimed at overcoming food insecurity in Chicago in Partnership with the Chicago Fire Soccer Club; engages with Chicagoland’s Catholic Worker communities via experiential learning models in his courses; is active in Mutual Aid initiatives on Chicago’s North Side; can occasionally be found serving behind the bar at Off Color Brewing; and contributes to literature documenting state sanctioned violence by the CPD against his city’s residents.
