Manuel Vasquez
Encyclopedia
Manuel A. Vasquez is Professor of Religion at the University of Florida
. He specializes in the interplay between religion and globalization, particularly in Latin America
and among U.S. Latinos.
and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Temple University
. He was an Andrew W. Mellon post-doctoral fellow at Wesleyan University
's Center for the Americas. Vasquez's dissertation and first book, The Brazilian Popular Church and the Crisis of Modernity (Cambridge University Press 1998), focused on the impact of neo-liberal capitalism on grassroots progressive Catholicism in Brazil. The book received the 1998 award for excellence in the analytical-descriptive study of religion from the American Academy of Religion
. More recently, Vasquez has co-directed (with Philip J. Williams) a series of studies, supported by the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Ford Foundation
, on the role of religion in the process of migration, settlement, and integration among Latinos in new destinations in the U.S. South. In particular, he has explored how religious congregations grapple with the challenges posed by increasing racial and ethnic diversity and transnational immigration, both authorized and unauthorized. Vasquez has also contributed to the field of method and theory, advancing a "non-reductive materialism" that stresses the centrality of embodiment, emplacement, practice, and material culture in the study of religion. He argues that religions are hybrid and dynamic artifacts produced by complex relations among discursive matrices, and social, neural, and ecological networks.
University of Florida
The University of Florida is an American public land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant research university located on a campus in Gainesville, Florida. The university traces its historical origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its present Gainesville campus since September 1906...
. He specializes in the interplay between religion and globalization, particularly in Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
and among U.S. Latinos.
Biography
Manuel A. Vasquez is a leading expert on religion and transnationalism in the Americas. Manuel A. Vásquez received his B.S. from Georgetown UniversityGeorgetown University
Georgetown University is a private, Jesuit, research university whose main campus is in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic university in the United States...
and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Temple University
Temple University
Temple University is a comprehensive public research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Originally founded in 1884 by Dr. Russell Conwell, Temple University is among the nation's largest providers of professional education and prepares the largest body of professional...
. He was an Andrew W. Mellon post-doctoral fellow at Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University is a private liberal arts college founded in 1831 and located in Middletown, Connecticut. According to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Wesleyan is the only Baccalaureate College in the nation that emphasizes undergraduate instruction in the arts and...
's Center for the Americas. Vasquez's dissertation and first book, The Brazilian Popular Church and the Crisis of Modernity (Cambridge University Press 1998), focused on the impact of neo-liberal capitalism on grassroots progressive Catholicism in Brazil. The book received the 1998 award for excellence in the analytical-descriptive study of religion from the American Academy of Religion
American Academy of Religion
The American Academy of Religion is the world's largest association of scholars in the field of religious studies and related topics. It is a nonprofit member association,...
. More recently, Vasquez has co-directed (with Philip J. Williams) a series of studies, supported by the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Ford Foundation
Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is a private foundation incorporated in Michigan and based in New York City created to fund programs that were chartered in 1936 by Edsel Ford and Henry Ford....
, on the role of religion in the process of migration, settlement, and integration among Latinos in new destinations in the U.S. South. In particular, he has explored how religious congregations grapple with the challenges posed by increasing racial and ethnic diversity and transnational immigration, both authorized and unauthorized. Vasquez has also contributed to the field of method and theory, advancing a "non-reductive materialism" that stresses the centrality of embodiment, emplacement, practice, and material culture in the study of religion. He argues that religions are hybrid and dynamic artifacts produced by complex relations among discursive matrices, and social, neural, and ecological networks.
Works
- Living "Illegal:" The Human Face of Unauthorized Immigration (co-authored with Marie Friedmann Marquardt, Philip J. Williams, and Timothy J. Steigenga) (New Press, 2011)
- More than Belief: A Materialist Theory of Religion (Oxford University Press, 2010)
- A Place to Be: Brazilian, Guatemalan, and Mexican Immigrants in Florida's New Destinations (editor, with Philip J. Williams and Timothy J. Steigenga) (Rutgers University Press, 2009)
- Latin American Religions: Histories and Documents in Context (with Anna L. Peterson) (New York University Press 2008)
- Immigrant Faiths: Transforming Religious Life in America (editor, with Karen I. Leonard, Alex Stepick, and Jennifer Holdaway) (AltaMira Press 2005)
- Globalizing the Sacred: Religion Across the Americas (with Marie Friedmann Marquardt) (Rutgers University Press 2003)
- Christianity, Social Change, and Globalization in the Americas (editor, with Anna L. Peterson, and Philip J. Williams) (Rutgers University Press 2001)
- The Brazilian Popular Church and the Crisis of Modernity (Cambridge University Press 1998)
Works with References to Manuel Vasquez
- Performing Piety: Making Space Sacred with the Virgin of Guadalupe (University of California Press, 2011)
- Word Made Global: Stories of African Christianity in New York City (Eerdmans, 2011)
- Religion at the Corner of Bliss and Nirvana: Politics, Identity, and Faith in New Migrant Communities (Duke University Press, 2009)
- The Transnational Studies Reader: Intersections & Innovations (Rutledge 2008)
- American Religions and the Family: How Faith Traditions Cope with Modernization and Democracy (Columbia University Press 2006)
- The Marketplace of Christianity (MIT Press 2006)
- A Nation of Religions: The Politics of Pluralism in Multireligious America (University of North Carolina Press 2006)
- The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Ecology (Oxford University Press, USA 2006)
- Globalizing Theology: Belief and Practice in an Era of World Christianity (Baker Academic 2006)
- Latinos and the New Immigrant Church (Johns Hopkins University Press 2006)
- Handbook of Latina/o Theologies (Chalice Press 2006)
- Crossing and Dwelling: A Theory of Religion (Harvard University Press 2006)