My name is Sujey Vega.

My name is Sujey Vega. I’m an Assistant Professor of Women and Gender Studies at Arizona State University. My primarily research focus explores Latina/o immigrant communities in the United States, with a specific interest on religious social networks and ethnic belonging to cultures/nations across borders. As such, I work on border theory as it exists across multiple borderlands and even in interior national locations where mental barriers keep people apart. Currently, I am conducting a historical and ethnographic analysis of Latino LDS members in Arizona, with possibility comparative analysis of Latino members in Salt Lake City to understand how these spaces alter one’s experience as ethnic members of the Church. In part, I am interested in the Relief Society and how it functions for Latina members of the church and/or replicates culturally familiar networks of of commadrazgo. I also explore the role politics, political rhetoric, and community activism plays in the lives of Latinos LDS members. Though my work is within the U.S., it relies on global flows of individuals and the role borders play in people’s perceptions of one another, even in a globalized Church.