معرفی
Melissa Borja is an Associate Professor in the American Culture department at the University of Michigan's College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, and a core faculty member in the Asian/Pacific Islander American Studies Program. She earned her Ph.D. in History from Columbia University (2014), M.A. in History from the University of Chicago (2006), and A.B. in History from Harvard University (2004). Before joining U-M, she was Assistant Professor in the Department of History at the College of Staten Island, City University of New York.
Dr. Borja's research examines religion, migration, race, ethnicity, and politics in the United States and the Pacific World, with special focus on how Asian American religious beliefs and practices have developed within pluralistic contexts and under the modern American state. Her work explores the complex relationship between religious diversity and governance practices, investigating how new religious diversity has complicated governance and how Americans have attempted to govern religious diversity.
Her scholarship spans academic publications including Shaped by the State: Toward a New Political History of the Twentieth Century, The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Race in American History, and The Oral History Review, as well as public-facing outlets like The Washington Post and Sojourners. She contributes regularly to the religious history blog Anxious Bench and has been featured on C-SPAN's 'Lectures in American History.'
- Thomas Wilson Memorial Prize
- Frank S. and Elizabeth D. Brewer Prize from the American Society of Church History
- Outstanding Achievement Award in History from the Association for Asian American Studies
- USA Today's Women of the Year (2022)
- Harold Johnson Diversity Service Award (2023)
As an active public scholar, Dr. Borja serves as lead investigator of the Virulent Hate Project studying anti-Asian racism during the pandemic and has contributed research to Stop AAPI Hate. She previously advised the Religion and Resettlement Project and currently leads the Asian American Religions in Coalition Project. She also advises the Vietnamese Boat People project, the COVID-19 Community Oral History Project, and the Bridging Divides Initiative.
Her research has been supported by grants from the Donia Center for Human Rights, Poverty Solutions, the Center for Social Solutions, and she has received prestigious fellowships including ACLS/Mellon and Charlotte Newcombe fellowships. Dr. Borja is also a researcher with the Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture and serves as co-chair of the North American Religions steering committee for the American Academy of Religion.
