Leah Sarat's work explores the intersection of religion and migration in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands, with attention to ways in which people draw upon religion to confront the challenges of the migration experience and navigate the boundaries of citizenship and belonging. Sarat received her PhD in religion in the Americas from the University of Florida and joined the Religious Studies faculty at Arizona State University in 2010. Her book, "Fire in the Canyon: Religion, Migration, and the Mexican Dream" (New York University Press, 2013) centers on the relationship between U.S. migration and Pentecostalism in an indigenous community in central Mexico that operates an innovative U.S.-Mexico border crossing simulation for tourists.
Sarat's current work focuses on the relationship between immigration, coloniality, and incarceration in Arizona. With support from the Louisville Institute, she has interviewed chaplains, faith-based volunteers, and individuals formerly held at Arizona's Eloy Detention Center to highlight the religious narratives and practices that alternately explain, justify, and resist the realities of private, for-profit immigrant detention in the state. While these stories provide insight on immigrant policing in borderlands, they also offer a window onto the intersection of Christianity with broader debates about safety, fear, liberation, healing, and personhood within the U.S. carceral landscape.
From 2015-2018, Sarat served as ASU's project lead for States of Incarceration, an NEH-funded public humanities collaboration of over twenty universities that has produced a travelling exhibit and web platform on the history and current realities of mass incarceration throughout the United States. In addition to leading graduate students through exhibit curation and development, in fall 2018 Sarat partnered with Phoenix Burton Barr Public Library to develop exhibit programming that brought students, faculty, storytellers, artists, and other community members into dialogue on the intersections between immigration and other forms of imprisonment in Arizona and beyond.
religion in North America, religion in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands, Pentecostalism, indigenous religions and Christianity, migration and border studies, immigrant detention, incarceration, coloniality
Single-authored book
Fire in the Canyon: Religion, Migration, and the Mexican Dream. New York University Press (2013)
Reviewed in Choice, Pneuma, and Hispanic American Historical Review; featured on AZBPS
Articles and book chapters
“Reimagining the border: religion, territory, and identity.” In Samuel Schmidt Nedvedovich and Marcelo González Tachiquín, ed., La frontera de las identidades: Explorando los cruces y límites de las identidades. Chihuahua, Mexico: El Colegio de Chihuahua, 71-94 (2015)
“El dios sin fronteras y el sueño mexicano: migración, turismo y pentecostalismo en una comunidad hñähñu.” Estudios de cultura Otopame 8 (1) 327-348 (2012)
Other Publications
Review of Miraculous Images and Votive Offerings in Mexico by Frank Graziano. Church History: Studies in Christianity and Culture, 86 (1): 272-274 (2017)
“The Resident Alien,” Contribution to The Social World of Deuteronomy by Don C. Benjamin. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 62-64 (2015)
“Mexico: Indigenous Religions.” In Charles H. Lippy and Peter W. Williams, eds. Encyclopedia of Religion in America. Washington, DC: CQ Press (2010)
“Anthropology of the Borderlands.” In Andrew G. Wood, ed. The Borderlands: An Encyclopedia of Culture and Politics on the U.S.-Mexico Divide. Westport: Greenwood Press, 10-13 (2008)
Individual Grants & Awards
"Faith Behind Bars: Encountering Immigrant Detention in Arizona." Louisville Institute-Sabbatical Grant for Researchers, Louisville Institute (2014 - 2016)
"Shielded by the Blood of Christ: Evangelical Migrants in Mexico and the United States." ASU Fellow, Institute for Humanities Research, Arizona State University (2011-2012)
Public Humanities Initiatives
ASU Partnership Lead, States of Incarceration, a collaborative, NEH-funded initiative of the Humanities Action Lab to produce a national traveling exhibit and web platform centering on the history and present reality of mass incarceration (2015-2018)
Project lead, Arizona Detention Research, a collaborative digital platform featuring audio archive, film, and other web-based content highlighting the voices of those who have been held in immigrant detention in Arizona (2018-2019)
Spring 2022 | |
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Course Number | Course Title |
REL 320 | American Religious Traditions |
REL 321 | Religion in America |
Fall 2021 | |
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Course Number | Course Title |
REL 320 | American Religious Traditions |
REL 321 | Religion in America |
REL 690 | Reading and Conference |
Spring 2021 | |
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Course Number | Course Title |
REL 319 | Religion, Violence and America |
REL 320 | American Religious Traditions |
REL 493 | Honors Thesis |
Fall 2020 | |
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Course Number | Course Title |
REL 321 | Religion in America |
Spring 2020 | |
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Course Number | Course Title |
REL 320 | American Religious Traditions |
REL 493 | Honors Thesis |
REL 691 | Seminar |
Fall 2019 | |
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Course Number | Course Title |
REL 320 | American Religious Traditions |
REL 492 | Honors Directed Study |
Spring 2019 | |
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Course Number | Course Title |
REL 700 | Research Methods |
PHI 700 | Research Methods |
HST 700 | Research Methods |
Fall 2018 | |
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Course Number | Course Title |
REL 321 | Religion in America |
Spring 2018 | |
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Course Number | Course Title |
REL 205 | Life, Sex and Death |
REL 320 | American Religious Traditions |
International
National
Local - Arizona State University
Noemí Quezada Award for the best dissertation about Otopame populations, Instituto de Investigaciones Antropológicas, UNAM, Mexico (2011)
American Academy of Religion
Latin American Studies Association
To the Profession
External reviewer for: Routledge Press, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Journal of Contemporary Religion, Latin American Research Review, Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture
To Arizona State University
2012-14 Member, Advisory Board, Institute for Humanities Research
To the School of Historical, Philosophical, and Religious Studies
2019- Faculty Head, Religious Studies
2019-20 Member, Graduate Committee in Religious Studies
2018-19 Associate Director of Graduate Studies, SHPRS
2018-19 Search Committee Member, Black Experience in the Americas (History and Religious Studies, Open Rank)
2015-2016 Search Committee Member, Modern Mexico (History, Open Rank)
2015-2018 Member, Committee for Undergraduate Education in Religious Studies
2012-2015 Member, Religious Studies Forum Committee (Chair 2014-2015)
2013-2014 Search Committee Member, Assistant Professor of Borderlands History
2012-2013 Search Committee Member, Assistant Professor of Environmental Humanites
Community Outreach
Volunteer Coordinator, The Phoenix Restoration Project, an organization providing support to immigrants in detention in Arizona and those who are newly released (2013- )
Member, Board of Directors, Arizona Interfaith Alliance for Worker Justice, Phoenix, AZ (2011-2012)
Media Appearances
2020 Episode appearance, Making America,
2019 KAET Channel 8. Arizona Horizon, “Reports of Inhumane Treatment at Immigrant Detention Facilities Holding Children are Coming out,” aired July 25.
2018 “What’s the Difference between a Refugee and a Migrant? ASU professor says immigration distinctions are important in understanding the migrant caravan story.” Interview with ASU Now, November 27
2018 Worried about immigrant detention? Learn about immigrant detention, mass imprisonment at these Phoenix events. Interview with Phoenix New Times, September 7.
2018 “The Morality of Immigration with Professor Leah Sarat.” The God Show, aired August 26.
2018 KAET Channel 8. Arizona Horizon, “Controversy Over Separating Kids from Immigrant Families Grows,” aired June 18.
2014 KAET Channel 8. Horizonte, “Religion and Migration.” Aired September 25.
2014 KJZZ, Here and Now, “ASU Panel Considers Legal Questions about Migrant Children” (with Prof. Evelyn Cruz). Aired September 3.