Academic Employment:
Associate Professor of American Studies, Middlebury College 9/2009-Present
Assistant Professor of Religion and American Studies and Ethnicity,
University of Southern California – 8/2001-6/2009.
Post-Doctoral Instructor in the History of the American West,
California Institute of Technology – 9/2000 – 7/2001.
Publications:
Books
Arcadia and Aztlán: Religion, Ethnicity and the Creation of History.
NYU Press, forthcoming 2009.
Chapters in Anthologies
With David Carrasco, “The Religious Vision of Gloria Anzaldua,” in
Mexican American Religions: Spirituality, Activism, and Culture,
Gaston Espinoza and Mario Garcia eds., Duke University Press, 2008.
pp. 223-241
“Mexican American Religion in a Comparative Perspective” in Religion
and Immigration in America: Comparative and Historical Perspectives,
Richard D. Alba and Albert J. Raboteau (Eds.), New York University
Press, 2008. (26 pages).
"Porous Borders: Mexican Immigration and American Civic Culture” in
Faith in America, Charles Lippy ed. Praeger Press, 2006. pp. 129-140.
“Re-Building the Church: Preservation and Restoration in American
Christian Practice” in Practicing Protestants, Laurie Maffley-Kipp,
Leigh Schmidt and Mark Valeri eds., Johns Hopkins University Press,
2006. pp. 118-136.
“Building California’s Past: Mission Revival Architecture and Regional
Identity” in Faith in the Market: Religion and Urban Commercial
Culture, John Giggie and Diane Winston eds., Rutgers University Press,
2002. pp. 91- 107.
Journal Articles
"Making a There There: Devotional Streetscapes in Los Angeles” in
Visual Resources, May 2009. (21 pages).
“Building California’s Past: Mission Revival Architecture and Regional
Identity” in Journal of Urban History, Vol. 28, No.4, May 2002:
429-444.
Papers Presented:
“Embodying History: Conquest Through Architecture in the Californias,”
Permanence and the Built Environment Conference, University of
Southern California, Los Angeles, 04/2009
“Making a There There: Murals and the Creation of Devotional
Streetscapes,” for the 10th Anniversary of the Publication of Lived
Religion, American Academy of Religion National Conference, San Diego,
11/2007
“Mary as Social Capital: the Many Uses of the Image of Guadalupe”
Visions and Vision Hunters Conference, University of Southern
California, Los Angeles, 02/2007
“A Plea for the West” Latina/o Studies Symposium, University of
Southern California, Los Angeles, 10/2005
“Immediate-Historical and Ongoing-Historical
Ramifications/Consequences of Selected Representations” History of
Religions Colloquium, Claremont College, Claremont, California,
11/2004
Response to “Positioning Mormonism in Women’s Studies and Western
History,” Positioning Mormonism Conference, Claremont College,
Claremont, California, 10/2004
“Re-Forming the Church: American Christian Practices of Historic
Preservation,” University of North Carolina, 10/2004.
“An American Spiritual Conquest: Religious Rhetoric and the
Transformation of Northern Mexico” University of Toronto, 03/2004.
“Creating Border Saints: Local/Transnational Devotional Religious
Practice” Religion and Social Justice for Immigrants Conference, USC,
02/2004
“Catholic Nativism: The Impact of Literary Representations of Religion
in the Southwest” American Studies Association Annual Meeting,
Hartford, 10/2003.
“Immigrants & Faith: Tradition and Change” Religion Newswriters
Association Annual Meeting, Seattle, 09/2003.
Panelist, "What is Visual Culture? And What Does It Have to Do with
the Study of Religion?" American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting,
Toronto, 11/2002.
“Spiritual Conquests: Religion and California’s Racial Imaginary”
Spring speakers series on Race, Religion and Nationalism, University
of California at San Diego, 5/2002.
“Making Place: Religion and the Re-Invention of the Borderlands,”
Dissolving Boundaries: A Decade of Dialogue in the Study of American
Religion, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, 4/2001.
“The End of Empire and the Historical Palimpsest of California,” Latin
American Studies XXII International Congress, Miami, Florida, 3/2000.
“Mesoamerica and Chicana/o Nationalism,” Re-Imagining Mesoamerica:
Archive, Community and Interpretation, Princeton University,
Princeton, New Jersey, 4/1999.
“The Spanish Fantasy Past and Aztlán: Latin American Histories in the
North American Southwest,” Latin American Studies XXI International
Congress, Chicago, Illinois, 9/1998.
“Willa Cather’s Death Comes for the Archbishop and Catholic
Anti-Catholicism,” Mid-Atlantic Regional American Academy of Religion
Conference, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 3/1998.
"Image and History: Mission Revival Architecture and Cultural Rhetoric
in California,” presented as a roundtable session, American Academy of
Religion National Conference, San Francisco, California, 11/1997.
“Nostalgia for the Enemy’s Past,” Mid-Atlantic Regional American
Academy of Religion Conference, Wilmington, Delaware, 3/1997.
Numerous panels moderated
Professional Service:
Steering Committee, Religion in the American West Seminar, American
Academy of Religion, 2008-Present.
Editorial Board, Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies, 2005-2009.
Steering Committee, North American Religions Section, American Academy
of Religion, 2002-2005.
Co-Chair, Latina/o Religions, Western Regional Chapter American
Academy of Religion 2001- 2005.
Research Advisory Council, Autry National Center, Los Angeles,
California. 2001– 2003.
Executive Committee, CRCC/Pew Center for Excellence in the Study of
Religion, University of Southern California, 2001-2005.
Fellowships, Grants, and Honors:
CRCC/Pew Grant for the Study of Marian Apparitions in Cultural Contact
Zones 2005-2007.
University of Southern California General Education Teaching Award, 2003-2004.
Multi-Media Literacy Program Course Development Grant, University of
Southern California, 2002.
Post-Doctoral Fellow in the History of the West, California Institute
of Technology, 2000-2001.
Dissertation Fellowship, Center for the Study of Religion, Princeton
University, 1999-2000.
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellowship, Huntington Library, Summer 1999.
Association of Princeton Graduate Alumni Award for Excellence in Teaching, 1998.
Princeton University Hannah Grant for Academic Research, 1997 - 1998.
Summer Stipend in the Humanities and Social Sciences, Princeton
University, 1998, 1999.
Princeton University Program in Latin American Studies Summer Research
Award, 1998.
Research Fellowship, Center for the Study of American Religion,
Princeton University, 1996 - 1999.
Faculty Fellow, Mathey College, Princeton University. 1995 – 2000.
Presidential Scholarship, Princeton University, 1995 - 1999.
Summer Opportunities For Academic Research Fellowship (U.S. Department
of Education), University of California at Santa Cruz, 1993.