HTI Executive Director Rev. Joanne Rodriguez speaks with Dr. Ahida (Calderón) Pilarski and Dr. María Carrión about the Latinas in Leadership Program

HTI Open Plaza logo background superimposed with icons representing Latinas in Leadership Program website offerings (clockwise from upper left): testimonials, facilitators, resources, and participants. Image: HTI Open Plaza

In this episode of OP Talks, Rev. Joanne Rodriguez, Executive Director of the Hispanic Theological Initiative (HTI) speaks with Dr. Ahida (Calderón) Pilarski, an Old Testament scholar at St. Anselm College, and Dr. María Carrión, a professor of religion and comparative literature at Emory University, about their experiences as a participant (Dr. Carrión) and a sage (Dr. Pilarski) in HTI’s Latinas in Leadership Program (LIL).

Launched in 2021, LIL aims to bolster the representation of Latina leaders in theological and religious education. The program helps bi-vocational, entrepreneurial, and mid-level career Latinas in the field to develop the skills they need to create sustainable practices that will carry and advance them through their careers. The conversation explores LIL’s holistic approach, which Dr. Pilarski frames with the acronym SALT: Self-Care, Assessments, Leadership, & Toolbox.

Participants in HTI’s Latinas in Leadership Program, with (right to left, back row) Dr. Ahida (Calderón) Pilarski, Rev. Joanne Rodriguez, and Dr. María Carrión, 2021. Courtesy of Hispanic Theological Inititative

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Dr. María Carrión holds a joint appointment in Religion and Comparative Literature at Emory University, where she has organized several conferences, including "Spain Before Spain. Encounters Between Muslims, Jews, and Christians (1500-1700).” She formerly held a Visiting Professorship at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras (UPRRP), where she also served as Dean of Graduate Studies at the School of Humanities. Dr. Carríon specializes in the cultural and religious production of Spain during the 16th and 17th centuries, with a particular focus on questions of drama, law, and architecture. She has also published articles and translations on the literature and culture of the Hispanic Caribbean. Her work analyzes religious and cultural matters in the many worlds of latinidad, ranging from Andalusi gardens and religious branding, to devotion and the sacred. Dr. Carrión has presented her work in the US, Spain, South America, Romania, and the former Yugoslavia, and her essays have been published in the US, Spain, France, and South America. Her books include Subject Stages. Marriage, Theatre, and the Law in Early Modern Spain (Toronto University Press, 2010) and Arquitectura y cuerpo en la figura autorial de Teresa de Jesús [Architecture and Body in the Authorial Figure of Teresa de Jesús] (Anthropos, 1994). She is currently working on a digital monograph exploring correspondences of nature and belief in 16th-century European dried gardens. Dr. Carrión holds a BA from the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez; two MA degrees from University of Tennessee, Knoxville and one from Yale University, where she also earned an MPhil and a PhD.

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Dr. Ahida (Calderón) Pilarski is Professor of Old Testament/Hebrew Bible at Saint Anselm College (NH). Her research focuses on the intersection of culture and gender in biblical interpretation, especially in Latina and Mujerista Biblical Hermeneutics. Her scholarly service to empower Latine (and Latina) communities includes, among others, being a member of the Editorial Board of the Wisdom Commentary Series (WCS), a member of the Steering Committee of HTI (Hispanic Theological Initiative), a member of the Committee for Underrepresented Racial and Ethnic Minorities in the Profession at SBL (Society of Biblical Literature), a member of the Advisory Committee of Raíces Latinas at Boston University School of Theology, and the honor of having taught so far three courses at the HSP (Hispanic Summer Program). In June of 2022, she was elected Vice President of ACHTUS (Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians of the United States).

She holds a BA in Theology from the Facultad de Teología Pontificia y Civil de Lima (Perú); an MA in Old Testament from Catholic Theological Union; a ThM in Old and New Testaments from the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago; an MLA from The University of Chicago; and a PhD in Hebrew Bible/Old Testament from the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago.

Dr. Pilarski has published many papers on the prophets, lamentations, migration, Latine and Latin American biblical hermeneutics, decolonial thinking and the Global South, and feminist critical inquiry. She has edited or co-edited Daughters of Wisdom: Women and Leadership in the Global Church (Wipf and Stock, 2023); 2 Kings [Wisdom Commentary Series] (Liturgical Press, 2019); Judges [Wisdom Commentary Series] (Liturgical Press, 2018); By Bread Alone: Reading the Bible through the Eyes of the Hungry (Fortress Press, 2014), and Pentateuco: Introducción al Antiguo Testamento/La Biblia Hebrea en Perspectiva Latinoamericana (Editorial Verbo Divino, 2014).

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Rev. Dr. Joanne Rodríguez is Executive Director of the Hispanic Theological Initiative (HTI) and an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church USA. Since 1999, Rev. Dr. Rodríguez has collaborated with students, faculty, deans, presidents, and directors of non-profit educational programs to ensure that HTI doctoral students graduate as influential leaders in theological and religious education and the broader educational landscape. She holds an honorary doctorate from the Iliff School of Theology, where she served as the Commencement Speaker for the class of 2024. She also earned ThM and MDiv degrees from Princeton Theological Seminary and a BA from Pace University. The Association of Theological Schools (ATS) recognized her contributions with a 2024 Women in Leadership Trailblazer Award. Additionally, Rev. Dr. Rodríguez is a teaching elder at the Westminster Presbyterian Church in Trenton, New Jersey.

Empowering Latina Leaders at HTI

HTI Executive Director Rev. Joanne Rodriguez speaks with Dr. Ahida (Calderón) Pilarski and Dr. María Carrión about the Latinas in Leadership Program

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