daisyvargas

daisyvargas@arizona.edu
Office Hours
By appointment.
Vargas, Daisy
Assistant Professor

Daisy Vargas (PhD -History, University of California Riverside;  MA- Religious Studies, University of Denver) specializes in Catholicism in the Americas; race, ethnicity, religion in the United States; Latina/o/x religion; and material religion. Her current project traces the history of Mexican religion, race, and the law from the nineteenth century into the contemporary moment, positioning current legal debates about Mexican religion within a larger history of anti-Mexican and anti-Catholic attitudes in the United States. Vargas' interests include museum curatorial and advisory work. 

Vargas is co-chair of the Religions in the Latina/o Americas unit and steering committee member of the Catholic Studies unit for the American Academy of Religion, curator of the American Religion journal’s “Sources,” and board member of Catholic Re-Visions (Political Theology Network.)

Selected Publications 

  • "Spectral Comrades and Comandantes: Latinx Hauntology and the Day of the Dead in Orange County, CA" with Jennifer Scheper Hughes in Religion in the Américas, ed. Christopher D. Tirres and Jessica Delgado, University of New Mexico Press (2025)
  • “Latinx Catholicism in the U.S.” in Bloomsbury Religion in North America, ed. Lloyd D. Barba (2023) 
  • “Religion: Here and Now,” in Religion in the American West: A Companion to the Exhibit Acts of  Faith, ed. Jessica Nelson, University of New Mexico Press (2023)
  • “Latinos/as/x, Pilgrimage, and Embodiment,” in the Oxford Handbook of Latinx/o/a Christianities, ed. Kristy Nabhan-Warren. Oxford University Press (2022)
  • “Is Anti-Catholicism Relevant Where and When We Are?” Journal of American Catholic Studies (2022)      

Selected Online Contributions

Selected Awards and Fellowships

  • National Endowment for the Humanities, "Engaging Latinx Art: Methodological and Pedagogical Approaches,” Summer Institute Fellow (2022)
  • Lived Religion in the Digital Age and Museum of Contemporary Religious Art, Public Humanities Fellow (2021)
  • Young Scholar in American Religion, Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture (2019-2021)
  • Center for Religion Cities, Summer Research Grant (2019)
  • Charlotte W. Newcombe Fellow (2017-2018)
  • Young Scholar in Latino Studies, Institute for Latino Studies (2017)

Museum Related Work

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Currently Teaching

RELI 150B1 – Religion and Popular Culture

This course introduces the study of religion and popular culture. It explores how religion is represented in popular cultural forms, and how social conceptions of "religion" and "popular culture" change over time. Students will examine how differing definitions of religion, culture, and taste intersect with historical and contemporary categories of class, gender, ethnicity, and race.

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RELI 160D7 – Introduction to Global Christianities

This course is an introduction to the academic study of Christianity in its global context. We will examine the origins of Christianity and its growth into the largest religion in the world. The course gives particular attention to the diversity of local contexts and local traditions, examining expressions of Christianity throughout Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas. Students will explore Christianity through a series of case studies, by examining historical sources, material culture, first-hand accounts, and artistic representations.

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To view full listing of courses offered, please visit our Course Schedule.

Course Schedule