Petro teaches courses in U.S. religious history, gender and sexuality studies, the long 1980s, and visual culture. He is the author of two books: Provoking Religion: Sex, Art, and the Culture Wars (Oxford University Press, 2025) and After the Wrath of God: AIDS, Sexuality, and American Religion (Oxford University Press, 2015). He serves as a series editor for the North American Religions book series at NYU Press. Before joining Notre Dame, Petro taught for over a decade in the Department of Religion at Boston University, where he also served as the NEH Distinguished Teaching Professor and founded the Health Humanities Project. He is currently working on a biography of Catholic writer Kathryn Hulme.
