Sister Anne Clifford, longtime professor and scholar of feminist theology, passed away on October 2. She was 80 years old.
Sister Clifford’s first roles in higher education were lecturing positions at Carlow College in Pittsburgh and Trinity College in Maryland. In 1988, joined the faculty at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, where she taught as an associate professor of theology for two decades. She also served as the university’s director of the graduate theology program and chair of the core curriculum revision committee. In 2008, she was appointed as the first woman to hold the Msgr. James A. Supple Chair in Catholic Studies in the department of philosophy and religious studies at Iowa State University. She retired from higher education in 2019.
As a scholar, Sister Clifford focused her academic work on feminist theology, creation theology, and the natural sciences. She authored Introducing Feminist Theology (Orbis Books, 2000), which discussed women’s contributions to spirituality and brought attention to global violence towards women in developing countries. Throughout her career, she was dedicated to the broader field of theology, serving on the board of directors of the Catholic Theological Society of America and as the vice president of the Catholic Theology Society. She was also a contributing editor for the New Catholic Encyclopedia.
Sister Clifford received her Ph.D. from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.