Steering Committee

More than twenty years ago, a small group of dedicated educators, administrators, pastors, and theologians made a commitment to build a program that would support Latina/o PhD students in religion and theology. The Hispanic Theological Initiative is the result of their leadership. Today, HTI Steering Committee Members play a vital role in managing the unique collaborative enterprise called the HTI consortium which is comprised of 24 PhD-granting institutions committed to advancing the recruitment, retention, and graduation of Latina/o PhD students, as well as the sharing of ideas and best practices to address the needs of Latina/o faculty and students. HTI Steering Committee members dedicate their time and talent to support gifted Latina/o PhD students to complete their doctorate and be leaders in the academy and church. The Member Council and the HTI Staff are grateful and acknowledge their wisdom, and service.

Peter Casarella

Steering Committee Chair; Associate Professor of Theology, University of Notre Dame

Before coming to Notre Dame in 2013, Peter Casarella served as professor of Catholic Studies at DePaul University where he was also the founding director of the Center for World Catholicism and Intercultural Theology. He has taught previously at the University of Dallas and The Catholic University of America. He has published ninety-one essays in scholarly journals or books on a variety of topics – e.g., medieval Christian Neoplatonism, contemporary theological aesthetics, intercultural thought, and the Hispanic/Latino presence in the U.S. Catholic Church. In 2005 he served as President of the Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians in the US (ACHTUS). He has published a monograph, Word as Bread: Language and Theology in Nicholas of Cusa (2017) and edited or co-edited: Cuerpo de Cristo: The Hispanic Presence in the U.S. Catholic Church (1998), Christian Spirituality and the Culture of Modernity: The Thought of Louis Dupré (1998), Cusanus: The Legacy of Learned Ignorance (2006), A World for All? Global Civil Society in Political Theory and Trinitarian Theology (2011), and, most recently The Whole is Greater than its Parts: Ecumenism and Inter-religious Encounters in the Age of Pope Francis (2020). He is currently working on a book entitled: The God of the People: A Latinx Theology.

Luis Rivera-Rodríguez

Member; Vice President for Academic Affairs and Academic Dean, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary

Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary named Dr. Luis R. Rivera as the Vice President for Academic Affairs and Academic Dean in October of 2013. Rivera began his term on January 1, 2014. Rivera maintains a thorough and diverse experience of academic teaching, administration, and institutional leadership. He is an exploring candidate for ordination as a United Methodist Deacon in the Northern Illinois Conference. Rivera received his Th.D. (1993) and Th.M. (1981) from Harvard Divinity School, his M.Div. (1978) from Evangelical Seminary of Puerto Rico, and his B.A. (1973) from the University of Puerto Rico. He is co-editor of The Westminster Dictionary of Christian Theologians (English, Spanish, and Portuguese editions). His research and teaching focus is systematic theology, specifically Latino/a and Diaspora theologies. He has published many articles on these subjects, including “Jesus el Migrante/Jesus the Migrant” in Jesus in the Hispanic Community: Images of Christ from Theology to Popular Religion (Westminster John Knox Press, 2010).

Eric D. Barreto

Member; Weyerhaeuser Associate Professor of New Testament, Princeton Theological Seminary

Eric D. Barreto is Weyerhaeuser Associate Professor of New Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary and an ordained Baptist minister. The author of Ethnic Negotiations: The Function of Race and Ethnicity in Acts 16 (Mohr Siebeck, 2010), the co-author of Exploring the Bible (Fortress Press, 2016), and editor of Reading Theologically (Fortress Press, 2014), he is also a regular contributor to ONScripture.org, the Huffington Post, WorkingPreacher.org, and EntertheBible.org. For more, go to ericbarreto.com and follow him on Twitter (@ericbarreto).

Jacqueline Hidalgo

Member; Associate Professor of Latina/o Studies and Religion, Williams College

Jacqueline M. Hidalgo is Assistant Professor of Latina/o Studies and Religion at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Her work examines the power of scriptural imaginaries, narratives, and material cultures in shaping relations of race and gender in the American West. She also studies religion, scriptures, and culture among Latin@s in the U.S. more generally.

Ahida Pilarski

Member; Associate Professor of Theology and Chair of the Theology Department, Saint Anselm College

Ahida Calderón Pilarski is Associate Professor and Chair of the Theology Department at Saint Anselm College. Calderón Pilarski serves as the Co-Chair of the SBL’s “Latino/a and Latin American Biblical Hermeneutics” section and is a member of the SBL’s Committee for Under Represented Minorities in the Profession (CUREMP). She has co-edited By Bread Alone: Reading the Bible Through the Eyes of the Hungry (Fortress, 2014), Pentateuco: Introducción al Antiguo Testamento/La Biblia Hebrea en Perspectiva Latinoamericana (Verbo Divino, 2014), and has published many papers on the prophets, Latino/a and Latin American hermeneutics, and feminist interpretation. Calderón Pilarski is also in the editorial board of the Wisdom Commentary Series.