HTI Alumni
Maziel Barreto Dani
Director of Family Support Services Catholic Charities, Oklahoma
Field of Study: Biblical Studies
Growing up in a colony of the United States and engaging the Bible’s interaction with its various imperial contexts exposed Maziel to the phenomena of empire. Her experience living in Puerto Rico under colonial rule together with her studies on the New Testament as a site of imperial negotiation are the heartbeat of her scholarship. Maziel’s research is focused on the ways the Bible, particularly the Gospel of Matthew, can be used to justify the acquisition and conquest of foreign land. As an ordained minister through the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and a scholar of New Testament, she challenges faith and academic communities to resist colonial ideologies which oppress not only people but the lands which they occupy.