Summer Session

The Summer Session is a two-week in-person intensive that takes place each June at a different Sponsoring School institution.

“I cannot express just how meaningful the Hispanic Scholar Program was to me. During a time when I was struggling vocationally during my doctoral program, I applied to HSP seeking connection with other Latine scholars across the United States. The two weeks we spent together in Philadelphia made a life-long impact on my sense of community, identity, and solidarity in the pursuit of liberative theological scholarship in a Latine context – it also inspired me to push forward in my doctoral journey by recentering the reasons I began this process in the first place: community and liberation! I am forever grateful to the leadership and mentorship provided by Dr. Daisy Machado, Dr. Jorge Rodríguez, and all of the professors during the 2024 summer session!” – Isabela Rosales  


Program Highlights

  • Join a cohort of Latine/Hispanic graduate students from across the country
  • Learn about the intersection of Latine/Hispanic Studies and Theology
  • Experience a learning environment centering Latine/Hispanic ways of knowing
  • Earn three credits toward your degree
  • Explore questions of vocation and further education

Program Description 

As our flagship program, the Summer Session is a two-week in-person intensive that takes place each June at a different Sponsoring School institution. Students gather from all over the world to take one of six courses offered by leading scholars in Latine/Hispanic studies and theological education. In addition to the learning component, students partake in various workshops, dinners, activities, and lectures within the two weeks that generates a robust community network for students during and after the program. Additionally, this program overlaps with our Through Hispanic Eyes and HSP for Undergrads so participants have the opportunity to engage institutional leaders as well as undergraduate students.

Program Dates and Location

  • Dates: June 13 – 27, 2026
  • Location: Villanova University

Program Fees

  • $475 for Master students from HSP Sponsoring Schools
  • $800 for Master and Doctoral students from Non-HSP Sponsoring Schools 
  • The program fee includes the cost of room, board, travel and the three graduate credits
  • The program fee includes the cost of room, board, and the three graduate credits for Doctoral students.
    • Please note that Doctoral students are responsible for their own travel costs.

Program Eligibility

  • This program is open to graduate students at an accredited institution
  • Priority is given to students from HSP Sponsoring Schools

Program Application

  • The application is open November 1, 2025 – February 28, 2026 (Priority Deadline) and the Rolling Admissions Deadline is March 21, 2026
  • The application requires one recommendation from a Dean and one recommendation from a faculty member at your institution
    • The recommendations are due 1-week after the application closes: March 6, 2026
    • The recommendations for applications submitted after the priority deadline are due 1-week after the application closes: March 28, 2026
    • The applicant will automatically receive an email notification when a recommendation has been submitted
  • The notification of admission is typically made within two weeks of the application closing

Once an applicant has been accepted into the program they will receive an email with a matriculation form to accept their program admission. This matriculation form includes the process for paying the Program Fee and is due 2 weeks after the notification of admission.

The HSP accepts the following payment methods for the Program Fee after an individual has been accepted into the program:

  • Check: Please make checks payable to the Hispanic Scholars Program and mail to: Hispanic Scholars Program (42 Tiemann Place, Ste 310 New York, NY 10027)
  • PayPal: Payments may be submitted via PayPal using an existing account or by creating one and linking your credit card
  • Zelle: Zelle payments may be made to admin@hispanicscholarsprogram.org 

Please contact the HSP administrator, Elizabeth Niang (eniang@hispanicscholarsprogram.org), if you have any questions regarding payment options.

  • Travel: After you have been officially accepted to the program, submitted your matriculation form, and submitted the program fee, you may proceed with purchasing your travel to the program location. Upon purchasing your travel, you must submit your full travel itinerary via email to the HSP administrator, Elizabeth Niang (eniang@hispanicscholarsprogram.org).
  • Housing: All housing for the duration of the program is coordinated directly by the HSP. We recognize that travel schedules may require some participants to arrive prior to the program start date or depart after the program concludes. If you require housing outside of the official program dates, we will work with you to coordinate accommodations. Please note that the cost of any additional housing will be deducted from your travel reimbursement.

Since its first Summer Session in 1989, the Hispanic Scholars Program (HSP) has sought to be a place of welcome in which theological education is made available to all students. In keeping with this commitment, the HSP does not discriminate in its admissions or program practices on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, gender, disability, or any other status protected by law. Applicants are evaluated using program-related criteria such as academic preparation, vocational interest, character, and commitment to theological study. The HSP has always served students, faculty, staff, administrators, and leaders from a wide range of backgrounds. Guided by the values of en conjunto (working together as a community), lo cotidiano (attending to the realities of daily life), and acompañamiento (walking alongside one another), we affirm that all people are created in the image of God and journey together in learning and faith.

We guarantee that our courses are taught with excellence, our faculty hold terminal degrees and are in good standing in their field, and that all of our classes meet ATS accreditation standards. Please note that HSP courses are not intended to fulfill any one school’s academic requirement, as we offer a wide variety of courses during the J-Term, Summer Session, HSP for Undergrads, Doctoral Accompaniment Seminar, and Praxis of Accompaniment. If a school chooses to use one of our courses to fulfill their requirements, then that is within the school’s purview, but we see our courses as electives that add to and expand a student’s curriculum.

In accordance with ATS accreditation standards, students must attend all class sessions in order to receive credit for the Summer Session.

2026 Summer Session Courses

Course Area: Bible

Faculty: Dr. Jacqueline Hidalgo, University of San Diego

Course Title: Bibles and Ecologies

Course Description: In her 2022 presidential address to the American Academy of Religion, Mayra Rivera asked us to take seriously the role of religion in the midst of “catastrophe,” and she drew particular attention to how ecological catastrophes have been deeply interconnected with histories of colonialism and enslavement. She and others, going back to at least Lynn White, Jr. in 1967, have also reconsidered the roles that particular biblical texts and traditions have played in enabling environmental destruction. Are biblical texts responsible for our ecological crisis? Or can biblical texts help us better hear voices from the Earth and other-than-human inhabitants? In this course, we draw particularly on approaches from minoritized and global biblical criticism to reflect on how we might read biblical traditions ecologically and how we might rethink the roles of Jewish and Christian scriptures in times of environmental emergency.

Course Area: Christian Education

Faculty: Dr. Patricia Bonilla, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary

Course Title: Educating for Liberation: Latina, Chicana, and Indigenous Feminist Perspectives

Course Description: Premised on the knowledge that the erasure of history and the restriction of education function as strategies against justice and the liberation of oppressed peoples, this course explores multiple epistemologies that shape theological imagination and equip students to engage the public sphere. Students will examine how centering land, memory, and marginalized voices reshapes theological discourse and educational practice. In conversation with texts from Indigenous, Latina, and Chicana feminists, the course highlights the construction of pedagogical spaces—in ministry and public life—that implicate us in each other’s flourishing through integrity, solidarity, mutuality, and hope.

Course Area: History

Faculty: Dr. Jorge Juan Rodríguez V, Hispanic Scholars Program

Course Title: Spirit y Lucha: Latiné Religious Activism in the 20th Century

Course Description: This course explores Latiné Religious Activism in the 20th Century, from the 1950s to the 1980s. Students will examine how faith influenced and was shaped by social movements, uncovering stories from the Farm Workers Movement, led by César Chávez and Dolores Huerta, the Land Rights Movement led by Reies López Tijerina, church occupations by groups like Católicos Por La Raza and the Young Lords Organization, the Sanctuary Movement of the 1970s and 1980s, and more.

Drawing on insights from Religious and Latino/a/e Studies, this course encourages students to consider how activism empowered Latiné peoples to adopt, resist, (re)negotiate, adapt, and hybridize various faith expressions, including Catholic, Pentecostal, Protestant, Atheist, Buddhist, Muslim, and Indigenous and African Diasporic traditions. These historical lessons offer valuable perspectives for understanding and organizing with Latine communities today.

Through “teach-in style” assignments, students will utilize historical methods to contextualize these social movements and faith expressions within their period, identifying how shifting contexts influenced the tactics, analyses, struggles, and theories of change among Latine activists. Through formal academic writing and public scholarship assignments, students will be prepared to apply these historical lessons to contemporary political landscapes with a focus on the interplay between faith and social movements.

Course Area: Intercultural Theology (Bilingual course/curso bilingüe)

Faculty: Dr. María Pilar Aquino, University of San Diego (Emerita) 

Course Title: Feminist Intercultural Theology: The Challenges of Violence and Peacebuilding in the 21st Century

Course Description: In light of the conceptual frameworks of a Feminist Intercultural Theology, this course explores some of the challenges facing theology and ministry in the 21st century, with special attention to realities that demand hopeful responses of constructive transformation, including perspectives on coloniality, ecological crisis, borders, sexual violence, feminicide, interreligious dialogue, and the intervention of religious actors in peacebuilding. This is a bilingual course with readings, presentations and discussions in Spanish and English.

Teología Feminista Intercultural: Los desafíos de la violencia y la construcción de la paz en el siglo XXI

A la luz de los marcos conceptuales de una Teología Feminista Intercultural, este curso explora algunos desafíos que enfrentan la teología y el ministerio en el siglo XXI, con especial atención a realidades que exigen respuestas esperanzadoras de transformación constructiva, incluyendo perspectivas acerca de la colonialidad, la crisis ecológica, las fronteras, la violencia sexual, el feminicidio, el diálogo interreligioso y la intervención de actores religiosos en la construcción de la paz. Este es un curso bilingüe con lecturas, presentaciones y discusiones en español e inglés.

Note: This course will be taught in both Spanish and English so it is expected that students will be able to read and speak in both languages. 

Este curso se enseñará en español e inglés y se espera que los estudiantes puedan leer y hablar en ambos idiomas.

Course Area: Liturgical Studies

Faculty: Dr. Cláudio Carvalhaes, Union Theological Seminary

Course Title: Immigration and Ecology – The Movement of People and Animals as Holy Liturgical Actions

Course Description: Life depends on movement! The very constitution of life on Earth has been established by the movement of the elements. The movement of water, seeds, wind, and fire all around the earth have created unique forms of living everywhere. In the same way, human life was only possible because humans moved everywhere since its very beginning. This is not different today and life continues to depend on various forms of movement. This class will delve into the migration of people and animals as holy movements, as liturgical actions that keep, expand and sustain life on earth.

Course Area: Practical Theology

Faculty: Dr. Yara González-Justiniano, Vanderbilt University Divinity School

Course Title: Cuidado Esencial: Exploring Ecological Care Praxis

Course Description: This course explores ecological care, as articulated by Leonardo Boff, in his approach to care as a form of coexistence that incorporates the spirituality of a sentient Earth. By drawing on framings from Latin American and decolonial thinkers to ground our work, we will explore the racialized implications, theologies of the body, theologies of hope, indigenous psychologies, and ethics of care and relation. 

We will explore/look at the interconnectedness of people, land/place, and spirituality, and develop practices of care and healing. By the end of the course, students will be able to draw on their contexts of ministry to identify the intersection between community development, the natural environment, and care. 

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