Young Scholars in American Religion Program
The next generation of leading teachers and scholars in American religion is at work in our colleges and universities today. With support from Lilly Endowment, the Center assists these early career scholars in the improvement of their teaching and research and in the development of professional communities through the Young Scholars in American Religion program. In addition to its historic concentration on teaching and research, the Young Scholars Program now includes a seminar devoted to such other professional issues as constructing a tenure portfolio, publication, grant writing, and department politics.
Meet the 2023 Young Scholars
Maggie Elmore
Maggie Elmore is Assistant Professor of US Latina/o history at Sam Houston State University. A historian of the 20th century United States, her teaching and research focus on immigration, religion and politics, and human rights in the 20th century United States. Maggie is the co-editor of Faith and Power: Latino Religious Politics Since 1945 (NYU Press, 2022). Her current book manuscript, Unholy Border: How the United States used the Catholic Church to Control Its Southern Border, is a study of 20th century religious politics and migration. Her work has also appeared in US Catholic Historian and the Southwestern Historical Quarterly. In addition, she currently serves as the Vice-President and President-Elect of the Texas Catholic Historical Society. Maggie holds a BA in history from Texas Tech University, and a PhD in United States History from the University of California, Berkeley.
Seth Emmanuel Gaiters
Seth Emmanuel Gaiters is Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies, and Africana Studies at University of North Carolina-Wilmington. He is a scholar of African American religious studies, with particular interest in the exploration of religion and race through Black progressive social movements and cultures in America. His interdisciplinary research and teaching trajectory engages the intersection of African American religious thought, political theology, race, African American literature, and critical theory. He is currently completing his book manuscript, tentatively entitled, #BlackLivesMatter and Religion in the Street: A Revival of the Sacred in the Public Sphere. In this project he brings his interests to a study of #BlackLivesMatter (BLM) as a way of broadening normative notions of (Black) religiosity and elucidating the synchronicity of spirituality and social justice in Black political organizing. He has received fellowships from the Ford Foundation, Louisville Institute, Forum for Theological Exploration, and Social Science Research Council.
Lucia Hulsether
Lucia Hulsether is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Skidmore College. She has broad interests in religion, culture, and politics in the Americas, with primary intellectual commitments to feminist/queer theory, critical race and ethnic studies, and the histories of social movements. Her first book, Capitalist Humanitarianism (Duke University Press, 2023) explores the historical interplay between twentieth century left/socialist organizing and neoliberal projects to make free markets “ethical” with respect to the racialized and feminized populations that they dispossess. Her current projects analyze the construction of truth-claims and the production of cultural identities within U.S. educational institutions. With Tina Pippin (Agnes Scott College), Lucia co-hosts the podcast Nothing Never Happens, which features conversations with teachers, organizers, and scholars on the cutting edge of radical pedagogy.
A JOURNAL OF INTERPRETATION: This semiannual publication explores the interplay between religion and other spheres of American culture.
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