CSR Book Talk: Follow the New Way: American Refugee Resettlement Policy and Hmong Religious Change with Melissa Borja

The Committee on the Study of Religion invites you to the 2025 Spring Book Talk featuring Melissa Borja (’04), Associate Professor of American Culture and core faculty member in the Asian/Pacific Islander American Studies Program at the University of Michigan. Dr. Borja researches and teaches about religion, migration, race, ethnicity, and politics in the United States and the Pacific World, with special attention to how Asian American religious beliefs and practices have developed in the context of pluralism and the modern American state.
 
In this talk, Dr. Borja will discuss her multiple-award-winning book, Follow the New Way: American Refugee Resettlement Policy and Hmong Religious Change (Harvard University Press, 2023), which examines how refugee resettlement policy transformed Hmong religious life in the United States.

Melissa Borja (Harvard College ‘04, PhD: Columbia) is Associate Professor of American Culture and core faculty in the Asian/Pacific Islander American Studies Program at the University of Michigan. A scholar of religion, migration, race, and politics in the United States and the Pacific World, her research focuses especially on how Asian American religious communities have navigated pluralism and state power. An active public scholar, Dr. Borja has contributed to national conversations on anti-Asian racism and refugee resettlement, notably through her work with the Virulent Hate Project, Stop AAPI Hate, and the Religion and Resettlement Project. Her scholarship and public engagement have earned her numerous honors, including recognition as one of USA Today’s Women of the Year in 2022. She also serves as a leader of the Asian American Religions in Coalition Project and is a National Research Fellow with the Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture.
 
For questions or more information, please contact Seokweon Jeon (Study of Religion) at seokweon_jeon@fas.harvard.edu.