“The object of attention is ultimately less important than the discipline itself, which is meant to deepen one’s love for goodness and truth, and also to intensify compassion for others.” Meghan O’Gieblyn on Simone Weil.

- Maddie Shorman on _Prioritizing Faith_ muse.jhu.edu/article/993175 - Amy Fallas on _Martyrs and Migrants_ muse.jhu.edu/article/993176

Very excited to be joining the conversations at Harvard Divinity School this coming academic year! www.hds.harvard.edu/faculty-rese...

Many thanks to Amy Fallas for this generous and thorough review of “Martyrs and Migrants” for American Religion! muse.jhu.edu/pub/3/articl...

Available for preorder this Fall @routledgebooks.bsky.social @riccardiswartz.bsky.social www.routledge.com/Orthodox-Chr...

lebner and telliel - science, religion, and secularity: the view from relations www.bloomsbury.com/uk/science-r...

The first issue of the Sikh Research Journal under my editorial direction has been published. The issue is organized around Gil Anidjar's On the Sovereignty of Mothers (@columbiaup.bsky.social 2024). It is open-access, but you have to register. Please read! sikhresearchjournal.org/index.php/sr...

Grateful to Fred Stella for the invitation to speak on the "Common Threads: An Interfaith Dialogue" program broadcast on @wgvupublicmedia.bsky.social in West Michigan, an affiliate of @npr.org. We talked about "Martyrs and Migrants" @nyupress.bsky.social and a range of topics.

my latest article: "Conversion as Translation and Transference: Becoming Muslim in Colonial India." 🙏 @amandazillo.bsky.social, Harini Kumar, SherAli Tareen, & @rajbirsinghjudge.bsky.social & the editors of CSSAAME @dukepress.bsky.social nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...

Packed room for such an incredible conversation! Many thanks to CEDEJ for making this happen!

Grateful to Aaron Michka for this very generous Mashriq & Mahjar review of “Martyrs and Migrants”! @nyupress.bsky.social lebanesestudies.ojs.chass.ncsu.edu/index.php/ma...

A forthcoming @dukepress.bsky.social book I will be reading. "According to Islamic tradition, God has at least ninety-nine names. In Ninety-Nine, Amira Mittermaier presents ninety-nine short chapters based on her fieldwork and interviews with over one hundred Egyptians about who God is to them."

Looking forward to my final book talk for “Martyrs and Migrants” this academic year in Cairo! @nyupress.bsky.social

our history of the present issue is now out from @dukepress.bsky.social ! on multiple registers of the "incapacitation" of tradition read.dukeupress.edu/history-of-t... hooray

I'm thrilled to announce that I'll be a Yang Visiting Scholar of World Christianity at @hdslibrary.bsky.social for the 2026-2027 academic year. I'll be working on my second book on Middle Eastern Christianity and indigeneity. Looking forward to being part of the HDS community!

Next Thursday, I’ll be giving a book talk for “Martyrs and Migrants” at the University of Chicago, in conversation with the incredible Eman Abdelhadi. Many thanks to Callie Maidhof and Matt Harris for organizing this!

An anthropologist of religion shows how Coptic Christians navigate two competing realities: the narrative of Christian persecution abroad and the suspicion surrounding migrants in the contemporary US.

This is very cool! Check out my @us.theconversation.com article in print!

china sajadian, debt and refuge: syrian farmworkers and the politics of displacement in lebanon www.sup.org/books/middle... hooray!

Check out Arab Americana, an awesome new journal founded by Dr. Edward E. Curtis IV! The journal is currently issuing a call for papers for their first issue. www.psupress.org/journals/jnl...

Many thanks to Mississippi State University for sharing the news on "Martyrs and Migrants" being awarded the Alixa Naff Prize in Migration Studies! @nyupress.bsky.social @khayrallahcenter.bsky.social www.msstate.edu/newsroom/art...

on limits: the critiques of homogeneity and the disclosure of traditions in secularism studies spectrajournal.org/articles/10.... looks great

Many thanks to @us.theconversation.com for the invitation to write this piece on "Martyrs and Migrants." "American politicians talk about persecuted Christians abroad-but here’s what happens when those Christians migrate to the US." @nyupress.bsky.social @csraac.bsky.social tinyurl.com/3mf3ezhr

Looking forward to my visit to Northwestern University at the end of April! Many thanks to Elizabeth Shakman Hurd for this very generous invitation. Please join us if you are in the Chicago area! @nyupress.bsky.social @csraac.bsky.social planitpurple.northwestern.edu/event/640909

As bombs sink metallic toxins into the earth and destroyed oil refineries send chemicals into the air, coating whole cities, we are thinking of the many harms caused by war's environmental violence as well as its military force. We've been here before: www.culanth.org/fieldsights/...

An intriguing book sponsered by a colleague, which may be of interest to some here. Spiro Jabbour was a Syrian Christian deacon writing in the 70s and 80s who sought an encounter between theology and psychoanalysis. Aaron Eldridge translated and edited this book, and Omnia El Shakry blurbed it.

Thrilled to share this news and grateful to the @khayrallahcenter.bsky.social for this recognition! @nyupress.bsky.social

I’m also very much looking forward to visiting the @uvmvermont.bsky.social next week for a book talk on "Martyrs and Migrants" @nyupress.bsky.social. Here are the details: Date: Tuesday, March 3 Time: 3:30–5:00 PM Location: Lafayette 210 If you are in the area, I’d love to see you there.

Next Friday, I’ll be giving a book talk on “Martyrs and Migrants” in the Department of Religious Studies at UVA! Please join us! religiousstudies.as.virginia.edu/candace-luka...

American #religion is changing, and we need more than hot takes and simple graphs. @USCCRCC is launching a multi-pronged effort to get better stories out there. Including journalism fellowships. dornsife.usc.edu/crcc/stories...

#cfp We are seeking papers for both a pre-conference workshop for New England-based anthropology PhD Students and early career faculty (March 27) and paper proposals for two panels (all ranks) (March 28). Due by 02.23.2026. docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

www.msstate.edu/newsroom/art... @aarweb.bsky.social @csraac.bsky.social

Interested in the YSAR program? Check out some of the different things our past and current members are working on! From book talks to podcasts, YSAR members are sharing their work in many ways! Learn more about YSAR: raac.indianapolis.iu.edu/programs/you...

Looking forward to my talk at Yale University with the Middle Eastern and North African Cultural Community (MENACC) next month!

Many thanks to the @curabu.bsky.social for organizing this book talk and conversation in early March! If you’re in Boston, consider joining us: www.bu.edu/cura/2025/12...

Sinan Antoon’s ‘Of Loss and Lavender’ In this conversation over e-mail, Sinan Antoon talks about the novel, the fraught nature of collective memory, the process of self-translation, and the sort of “security checkpoints” a book must pass through in the process of translation.

Absolutely thrilled to be working with Leonard McKinnis on this project, “The Idea of Diaspora in the Study of American Religion”! Many thanks to the @aarweb.bsky.social for their support!

Coptic spell to Acquire a Beautiful Voice, 6th–7th century CE, Egypt, ink on papyrus, 37.3 x 25.4 cm (Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven) archives.yale.edu/repositories...

"[A MEMORY OF VIOLENCE's] analysis of early Christian conflicts has furthermore taken shape against the backdrop of ever more polarized U.S. political conversations..." Read an excerpt with author's note from A MEMORY OF VIOLENCE by Christine Shepardson: www.ucpress.edu/blog-posts/e... #SCS2026

NEW MIDDLE EAST BRIEF: DISAPPEARANCE OR RECONFIGURATION? THE FUTURE OF MIDDLE EASTERN CHRISTIANS @clukasik.bsky.social argues that focusing on population decline alone obscures how Christian communities are actively reconfiguring their presence and authority. Read Here: brandeis.edu/crown/public...

2025 is coming to a close! Take a look at some of our favorite 2025 YSAR moments. From a graduating cohort that has grown and flourished, to welcoming a new batch of great scholars, this year has been an incredible journey with our YSAR cohorts!

Looking forward to this symposium at معهد الدوحة للدراسات العليا - Doha Institute for Graduate Studies! My paper is entitled, "Entanglement: The Imperial Encounter and Diasporas of Empire.” www.dohainstitute.edu.qa/en/News-and-...

Lucie Ryzova's "Portrait of a #Martyr as a Young Man: Social Lives of #Photographs in Revolutionary #Egypt" is open access and out on FirstView! doi.org/10.1017/S001...

We are pleased to announce that Rajbir Singh Judge's PROPHETIC MAHARAJA is the winner of the 2025 Best First Book in the History of Religions from the American Academy of Religion (AAR). buff.ly/aTJkAo6 @rajbirsinghjudge.bsky.socia @aarweb.bsky.social

What an incredible week of celebration. Book panels at AAA and MESA, thinking “Martyrs and Migrants” and Sarah Bakker Kellogg’s “Sonic Icons” together, and a brief stop at AAR, reuniting with people that make my heart full. Thank you all!

We're concluding another successful AAR-SBL gathering, and it’s been wonderful to connect with all our authors in Boston! With tomorrow as the final day, we're giving away the remaining display books for free! Swing by Booth 813 starting at 8:30! #AAR #SBL #AARSBL2025

Our symposium on the 20th anniversary of the release of Saba Mahmood’s Politics of Piety is now available online, with thanks to @biqbal.bsky.social for bringing us together. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Many thanks to Fiona McCallum Guiney for this detailed and incredibly thoughtful review in @ersjournal.com of ‘Martyrs and Migrants’ @nyupress.bsky.social! www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

🎉Anthropologies of Orthodox Christianity: Theology, Politics, Ethics is now available @fordhampress.bsky.social!🎉 fordhampress.com/anthropologi...