Student Spotlight Featuring Hannah DeSouza, MDiv ’25

Hannah DeSouza, MDiv ’25, grew up in the United Kingdom with a Caribbean father and an English mother—both Christian ministers who instilled biblical principles in her from a young age. Building on this foundation, she pursued a master’s degree in Victorian literature at the University of Oxford, exploring themes of faith and doubt in literature.  

Soon after graduating, DeSouza felt the familial calling to become a minister. She served for three years, eventually ending up in Boston. In search of deeper meaning, she attended three annual admissions events at Harvard Divinity School, where she was drawn to its pluralism and emphasis on interfaith dialogue. But she put her application on hold when her ministerial work brought her to a church in Moldova. She was living on the Moldova-Ukraine border when Ukraine was invaded by Russia in 2022, which resulted in DeSouza living with close to 100 Ukrainian refugees. Amid what she calls “a formative time,” DeSouza applied to HDS, intending to focus on religion, literature, and culture.  

What began as a study of culture more broadly soon became a deeply personal journey. DeSouza explained that her classes at HDS—particularly those with the Rev. Kelly Brown Douglas, Visiting Professor of Theology, that focused on liberation and womanist theology—went beyond academics. “My time at Divinity School allowed me to reconnect with my Caribbean roots,” she says. “I didn’t expect to take classes that spoke to me so personally.” Recalling the loss of her grandmother when she was young, DeSouza says classes and scholars at HDS helped her better understand the voices of Black women throughout the history of religion and within her own ancestry.  

This realization, coupled with her scholarship, inspired her award-winning sermon at the 2025 Billings Preaching Prize Competition. In it, she focused on the Old Testament figure Hagar. “There is an important application for our world today in her story—the need to recognize those who dwell on the margins of society, those whom the world might urge us to overlook,” she says. “The message I see in her story is that those are the very people who are seen and valued by God and therefore those who should be seen and valued by us all.”  

In addition to her personal connections to her coursework, DeSouza says, she “discovered community at the School in unexpected places.” Leading Harambee, singing at the Multireligious Commencement Service, and praying at the Great Salt Lake during a class trip to Utah served as a testament to what she feels HDS truly represents: pluralism in action. During her time at the University, DeSouza also served as the interfaith proctor for first-year students—building community within Harvard College.  

When asked about a meaningful insight from her tradition, DeSouza offers the words of Jesus in Matthew 22:39: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Noting that this commandment is simple in theory, but not always easy to practice, she emphasizes the importance of faith as a foundation from which to honor our shared humanity across generations and geography. This year, DeSouza is continuing to share her knowledge of both literature and religion as a visiting scholar at Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, Texas.  

Banner photo courtesy of Hannah DeSouza