Karen L. Hernandez

Karen Leslie Hernandez graduated from Andover Newton Theological School in
2007 with an M.A. Theological Research in Christian-Muslim Understanding and from Wellesley College as a Davis Scholar in 2005 with a B.A. in Peace and Justice Studies with a concentration in Islam.  Currently, Karen works at BUSTH as an Admissions Officer and she teaches, lectures and writes about Islam, global Christian-Muslim understanding and relations, Al Qaeda, theological responses to terrorism, women, religion and human rights, and Islamophobia.  She has traveled extensively to India to view Christian-Muslim relations there, as well as with a peacemaking delegation from Christian Peacemaker Teams to Israel and Palestine.  In December 2009, Karen spoke on three panels at the Parliament of World Religions conference in Melbourne, Australia.  Karen is pursuing her Master of Sacred Theology in Religion and Conflict Transformation at BU STH, where she plans to develop a theory on theological co-existence.  Besides being the proud mother of her college age daughter, Katy, Karen is also a choreographer and works mostly in educational theatre settings.  In her “spare time,” Karen likes to read, kayak, swim, hike, and hang out on the beach.

She writes, “As someone who has studied religion and conflict around the world for the last six years, I applied to the BU School of Theology Religion and Conflict Transformation Program because I feel I need to do a bit more work in this area before I go out into the world and actually work in religious conflict resolution.  This program allows me to explore specific areas that I was not able to work on with my other degrees and so far is very beneficial to myself and to my work on multi-faith issues world wide.”