Professor Nabhan-Warren joined the faculty in 2012.
Kristy's recent monograph is Meatpacking America: How Migration, Work and Faith Unite and Divide the Heartland (UNC Press, September 2021). Based on seven years of fieldwork in rural Iowa, Meatpacking America is a finely grained ethnography as well as historically situated study of lived religion in the hog and corn producing state of Iowa. Kristy makes the argument that if we want to understand the intersectionalities of migration, work, and religion in the United States today, then we must focus on states like Iowa and the broader midwestern Cornbelt. She makes a case for studying small towns and rural places, as scholars have long privileged urban locales. Moreover, if we want to truly understand the complex dynamics of religion, scholars must explore places long overlooked as religious sites, like slaughterhouses and farm fields.
Research interests
- American religions
- Ethnographic approaches to study of religion
- Catholic studies
- Latinx studies
Service to the profession
Kristy is the 2026 Vice President and will become the 2027 President of the American Catholic Historical Association (ACHA). The ACHA is a conference of scholars, archivists, and teachers of the history of the Catholic Church. Founded in 1919, the American Catholic Historical Association sponsors Spring and Winter academic meetings, encourages new scholarship through research and travel grants, recognizes yearly achievements with prizes and awards, and celebrates the ACHA's long-standing history of scholar-teachers.
Kristy is the creator and series editor of the book series Where Religion Lives with The University of North Carolina Press. She worked closely with UNC Press Executive Editor Elaine Maisner up to her April 2022 retirement from the press, and now works with UNC Press Editorial Director Mark Simpson-Vos on the series. WRL is dedicated to publishing innovative ethnographies of religion.
Selected publications
- The Oxford Handbook on Latinx Christianities in the United States. Editor. (Oxford University Press 2022)
- Meatpacking America: How Migration, Work, and Faith Unite and Divide the Heartland (UNC Press, 2021)
- Américan Woman: The Virgin of Guadalupe, Latinas/os, and Accompaniment (Loyola Marymount University Press, 2018)
- The Cursillo Movement in America: Catholics, Protestants, & Fourth-Day Spirituality (UNC Press, 2013)
- The Virgin of El Barrio: Marian Apparitions, Catholic Evangelizing, and Mexican American Activism (NYU Press, Qualitative Studies in Religion series, 2005)