Joining the University of Saint Thomas in Houston (UST) over a decade ago, Father Rosales Acosta is a tenured professor and the Director of the Center Semillero for Hispanic/Latino Theology.
HOUSTON, TX, January 11, 2024 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Dempsey Rosales Acosta, DST, has been inducted into Marquis Who's Who. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
Joining the University of Saint Thomas in Houston (UST) over a decade ago, Father Rosales Acosta is a tenured professor and the Director of the Center Semillero for Hispanic/Latino Theology. He is also recognized as the Michael Miller endowed chair in Catholic studies and as the Chair of the faculty senate. Lecturing primarily during the evenings both online and on campus, many of Father Rosales Acosta's students are notably international.
Father Rosales Acosta, in addition to his regular course load at UST, has been the curriculum designer and professor of the Master of Arts in pastoral theology since 2019, a professor of New Testament theology and spirituality at Saint Catherine Convent since 2020, professor of New Testament at the Instituto Bíblico Católico of Loyola Marymount University (LMU) since 2015, and the expert content, curriculum designer, and a professor of the Master of Arts in sacred scripture since 2021. The pastoral and biblical theology programs are entirely online, each with 12 courses totaling 36 credit hours. Teaching an incredibly diverse student body, Father Rosales Acosta's students hail from Spanish countries like Columbia, Nicaragua, Peru, Venezuela, Argentina, and Mexico, as well as the United States, Canada, and Japan. While the majority are laypeople from various backgrounds, the programs also comprise graduates who were previously ordained as priests and nuns.
Pioneering a 100% online Spanish master's degree at UST, the Center Semillero for Hispanic/Latino Theology is recognized as the only graduate program in the U.S. to be completely online and in Spanish. Looking toward the future, Father Rosales Acosta plans to create an associate degree program that will offer a degree in pastoral and biblical theology, combining both disciplines. Additionally, he aims to create an opportunity for Spanish-speaking laypeople to study theology and obtain degrees from a liaison with the pontifical university of Mexico. Father Rosales Acosta is presently working on a biblical interlineal project with Verbum (Faithlife LLC), which will align the Spanish text of the Bible with original documents in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek Koiné. To reach a wider audience, he will also feature a podcast that will ultimately have reruns.
An expert in biblical theology, exegesis, Hebrew semantics, and Deuteronomistic history, Father Rosales Acosta has also researched topics like John of Apamea and Mark's Gospel, the Hebrew semantics of RUAH, the introduction of the Canonical Gospels, and more. He has notably secured numerous grants in excess of $40,000 to support his work.
Widely published, Father Rosales Acosta has contributed multiple scholarly articles in such publications as the Journal of Hispanic/Latino Theology, Helmantica and Teología y Vida. He has also authored, co-authored, and edited numerous books and presented before various professional groups and on college campuses locally and abroad over the past decade. Father Rosales Acosta's most recent book, which he co-authored in 2023, brings together three areas of expertise: education, counseling, and biblical theology, including his theological perspective on inclusion.
Apart from his work in higher education, Father Rosales Acosta assists the Hispanic and Ecclesial communities throughout the U.S. struggling to access education. He has also been affiliated as a collaborator and consultant for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the American Bible Society, and the Pané Pontifical Foundation.
Father Rosales Acosta received a Bachelor of Philosophy from the Catholic University Cecilio Acosta University in Venezuela in 1994, followed by a Bachelor of Theology in 1998 and a Doctor of Sacred Theology in 2010 from Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, Italy. He also received licensure in Science in Holy Scripture from the Pontifical Biblicum Institute in 2004 in Rome, Italy, and certification in the higher school of economics at the National Research University in Moscow in 2021. Father Rosales Acosta speaks fluent English, Spanish, and Italian in addition to his research languages.
Active in his professional community, Father Rosales Acosta is a member of the Society of Biblical Literature, the American Bible Society, the Catholic Theological Society of America, and the Catholic Biblical Association. He is also a member of the Association of Catholic Hispanic Theologians of the United States, where he was active in the Virgilio Elizondo Award committee from 2022 to 2023.
Father Rosales Acosta has been recognized for academic background as a Faculty Advisor of the Year in 2012, UST Professor of the Year in 2019, and with a Saint Thomas Aquinas Excellence in Teaching Award in 2020. He also received the Edith Stein Award for Excellence in Research and Scholarship in 2017 and he has been the recipient of Michael Miller Endowed Chair in Catholic Studies (2019-2022 / 2023-2025).
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