Allison Isidore is a Ph.D. candidate in the department of Classics and Religious Studies at the University of Iowa, focusing on American Catholic History. Her research interests focus on the twentieth-century American Civil Rights Movement and the role of Catholic women religious in participating in traditional forms of social action, such as marches, sit-ins, and kneel-ins, but also the role of everyday labor from women religious, such as teachers and nurses, to fight for racial equality during the 1950s and 1960s. 

She is also the Assistant Director for the American Catholic Historical Association. She also serves on the American Academy of Religion’s Graduate Student Committee.

She tweets from @AllisonIsidore1.

Research areas

• American Catholicism
• Religion in Popular Culture
• Race, Gender, and Religious Identity

Publications

• “Historical Sites and Memory: How Different Research Environments Change Scholarship,” In University in Flames: Ecologies of Scholarship in the Study of Religion, edited by Teemu Taira. Equinox Publishing. 2026.
• “Book Review: Social Justice from Outside the Walls: Catholic Women in Memphis, 1950-1970 by Ann Youngblood Mulhearn.” American Catholic Studies 136, no. 2 (2025): 84–85. https://doi.org/10.1353/acs.2025.a964341. 

Presentations

• “From Hero Priest to Hero Nun: The Catholic Church as Villain in The First Omen and Post-Dobbs Horror,” American Catholic Historical Association. Chicago, Illinois, January 2026.
• “Women Religious and Intellectual Activism: Catholic Intellectuals and the Fight for Social Justice,” Conference on the History of Women Religious, Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism, University of Notre Dame. South Bend, Indiana, June 25, 2025.
• “Catholics for Social Change Before and During “Bloody Sunday,” American Catholic Historical Association. San Francisco, California, January 2024.
• “Historical Sites and Memory: How Different Research Environments Change Scholarship,” North American Association for the Study of Religion. San Antonio, Texas, November 2023