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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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 160D6 – Gender and Religion

This course introduces students to the study of gender and religion. Students will consider foundational questions about the categories of religion and gender- what is religion and how do we study it? What is the relationship between gender and religion? How does gender shape religious roles and experiences, and how has gender in turn been shaped by religious expectations? We will examine some of the most central contemporary political conflicts from the perspective of gender studies and religious studies.

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RELI 302 – Ellis Island, 9/11, and Border Walls: Religion and Immigration in the U.S.

This course will explore the central role of religion in shaping constructions of race and ethnicity in U.S. history, especially in light of immigration debates. Since the country's founding, immigrants have expanded ethnic and religious diversity in the United States in the face of powerful anti-immigrant movements. Students will engage with in-depth studies of immigrant communities who shaped the American religious and ethnic landscape, including diverse American expressions of religions such as Roman Catholicism, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Evangelical Protestantism, and Vodou.

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This course will explore the central role of religion in shaping constructions of race and ethnicity in U.S. history, especially in light of immigration debates. Since the country's founding, immigrants have expanded ethnic and religious diversity in the United States in the face of powerful anti-immigrant movements. Students will engage with in-depth studies of immigrant communities who shaped the American religious and ethnic landscape, including diverse American expressions of religions such as Roman Catholicism, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Evangelical Protestantism, and Vodou.

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RELI 200 – Introduction to the Study of Religion

The objective of this course is to introduce you to the study of the phenomenon called 'religion'. What makes people religious? How is religion defined? What are the different approaches to understanding religion in all of its diversity? Through a reading of texts from diverse backgrounds and approaches, this course will illuminate the complex and multi-dimensional elements of religion, and how the study of religion can open up new ways of seeing the world.

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

Course Schedule