HTI Alumni

Marlene Ferreras

Marlene Ferreras

Assistant Professor of Practical Theology at La Sierra University, HMS Richards Divinity School

Field of Study: Practical Theology 

Marlene Mayra Ferreras is the daughter of a single parent Cuban refugee mother. Born and raised in southern California, Marlene was a pastor for 14 years in the Seventh-day Adventist denomination and was ordained by the Pacific Union Conference in October 2012. Her academic interests are at the intersection of social science and theology.

Marlene Ferreras received her Ph.D. in practical theology at Claremont School of Theology. Her area of specialization is spiritually integrative psychotherapy. Marlene holds a MS in marital and family therapy from Loma Linda University and a MA in theology with an emphasis in biblical studies from Fuller Theological Seminary.

Marlene’s research studies the identity and eschatology of indigenous female maquila workers in Yucatan, Mexico. She is interested in the strategies women use to resist systems of violence and oppression for the purpose of providing spiritual care that assists women in identifying and developing preferred futures.

Publications

Ferreras, Marlene M., Duane R. Bidwell, and Thomas Pernecky. 2019. “The University as a Maquila: Whose Voice, Whose Ideas, Whose Knowledge?” In Postdisciplinary Knowledge, 1st Edition. Routledge

Ferreras, Marlene M. “Women’s Agency in the Context of Neoliberal Capitalism.” In What’s with Free Will? Religion and Ethics after Neuroscience, edited by Philip Clayton and James W. Walters, 106-121. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2020.

Ferreras, Marlene M. “Caregiving and a Multinational Corporation in México.” In Care, Healing and Human Wellbeing within the Interreligious Discourse ed. Karl Federschmidt, Daniel Louw and Linda Bredvik. Forthcoming, 2021.

Ferreras, Marlene M. “Gender-Based Violence,” in Injustice and the Care of Souls, edited by Sheryl A. Kujawa-Holbrook and Karen B. Montagno. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press. Forthcoming, Winter 2022.

Ferreras, Marlene M. Insurrectionist Wisdoms: Toward a North American Indigenous Pastoral Theology, Environment and Religion in Feminist-Womanist, Queer, and Indigenous Perspectives. Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books. Forthcoming, 2022.

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