I am a professor of religious studies at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, where I study and teach on religion in the Americas, Latinx religion, and healing. I have been especially interested in understanding the importance of Mexican American religions in the United States in general. My first book, Border Medicine (NYU Press, 2014), explores Mexican American curanderismo and shows how this tradition has had an influence not only on Latinx communities, but also among many Anglo Americans. My second book, The Healing Power of the Santuario de Chimayó (NYU Press, 2017), looks at an important site of Catholic pilgrimage in northern New Mexico that is known for miraculous healing. My book tells the history of this place and shows how various populations have made meaning and found healing there. My third book, Mexican American Religions: An Introduction (Routledge, 2022), relates the historical development of Mexican American religion from the colonial period to the present.

I have lived in a variety of places including Arkansas (where I grew up), New York City, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Kentucky, Illinois, and Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Young Scholars in American Religion, 2014-2016