Fr. Patrick Wanakuta Baraza, Ph.D.

Dr. Patrick Baraza, Senior Lecturer of Religious Studies, is an ordained priest from the diocese of Kitale, Kenya. He has been teaching African Catholicism and Islamic Civilization in the Religious Studies Department at Gonzaga University since 2005. Baraza studied theology at Saint Thomas Aquinas Seminary cum Pontificia Universitas Urbaniana, Rome, Italy (1978-1982). He holds a Bachelor of Divinity (B.Div.) degree (1982), Licentiate (S.T.L.) from Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley (1995) and a doctorate in Theology from the Graduate Theological Union cum University of California Berkeley (2002). His area of specialization: Islamic Studies and African Traditional Religions. Prior to coming to Gonzaga, Baraza taught African studies at Saint Augustine National Seminary at Mabanga, Kenya. He has also taught Comparative Religions at Eastern Washington University, Cheney and Islamic Civilizations at Spokane Community College. Baraza has served as a chaplain at Saint Mary's College of California, Moraga, for six years. He is the author of "Rival Claims for the Soul of Africa" as well as an upcoming book entitled "Drumming up Dialogue: The Bukusu Model for the World".