I am a writer and scholar of migration and religion. I grew up in the US South, the daughter of a baker and evangelical minister, learning from a young age the importance of ritual and performance in the lives of migrants. Currently, I am an Assistant Professor in Latin American and Latino Studies at the University of Illinois Chicago, where I teach courses on Latine religions and transnational migration.
My book, Sanctuary Everywhere: The Fugitive Sacred in the Sonoran Desert, documents moments of care and intimacy on the migrant trail, considering how people defend and shelter each other in the face of militarized enforcement. I am currently working on two books: The Sanctuary Reader is a collaboration with Lloyd Barba, and the first primary source reader documenting sanctuary movements from the 1980s to the present. Siempre Estoy Llegando is a collection of essays on my father's conversion to Christianity, his work ministering to migrants in the rural south, and my family’s complicated relationship with our homeland. My writing has appeared in The Nation, Bitch, Teen Vogue, and Remezcla, among others.