Anthony Petro

Anthony Petro is an associate professor at Boston University in the Department of Religion and in the Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies Program. His teaching and research areas include the history of religion in United States; religion, medicine, and public health; gender and sexuality studies; and visual and performance art. His first book, After the Wrath of God: AIDS, Sexuality, and American Religion (Oxford University Press, 2015), examines the history of religious responses to the HIV/AIDS crisis in the U.S. and their role in the promotion of “moral citizenship.” He is next book, Provoking Religion: Sex, Art, and the Culture Wars (coming out with Oxford University Press in spring 2025), traces heated debates over sex, art, race, and religion to reveal competing genealogies of the sacred and the secular in the modern U.S.