Embodying the Fruits of the Mind

Rev. Dr. Joanne Rodríguez talks with Dr. Teresa Delgado about the communal value of acompañamiento while straddling the demands of academia into the challenges of the wider world

This OPTalks episode features a conversation between Rev. Dr. Joanne Rodríguez and Dr. Teresa Delgado, who reflects on her experiences as a doctoral student, discussing the unique challenges she faced, particularly as a Latina balancing family responsibilities and academic demands. Dr. Delgado emphasizes the importance of community support, particularly the acompañamiento that HTI offers, which she credits for her perseverance and success. She illustrates the impact of mentorship and the broader implications for women and mothers navigating the academic landscape, and its systemic challenges.

Dr. Delgado also describes the dissonance between her embodied understanding of theology and the cerebral expectations of the academy. The conversation highlights the importance of listening to students' experiences and rethinking traditional pedagogical silos within theological institutions. 

Reflecting on Dr. Daisy Machado’s work, Dr. Delgado heightens the potential of community by stating, “I'm thinking about the ways that…contemporary problems like the environmental crisis is requiring us to delve into church history and ethics and biblical studies and systematic theology across all of those, and social scientists and climate scientists draw from all of that kind of expertise to offer some kind of prophetic word into this moment.”