AASR Scholar of the Month

This month, we are pleased to feature  B Laboy as the AASR Scholar of the Month, acknowledging their emerging contributions to the field as an early-career scholar. The interview below offers insights into their research and scholarly trajectory.

Tell us about yourself, your academic background and research interests.

I am B Laboy. I am a child of a Mexican immigrant mother and a Puerto Rican father. I was born and raised in Chicago, USA, as a Christian pastor’s kid. Religion has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. I am a spouse and pet parent of 4. As an undergraduate, I studied religion and psychology, graduating in 2023. I am a Master of Arts in Religion student at Yale Divinity School, Yale University in New Haven, USA. My concentration is in World Christianity. I am ending my second year and will be entering my extended third year in the fall and applying for Ph.D programs for the following year. My research interests are primarily in Latine and African Diaspora Religions. Particularly, I am interested in how these religious communities contend with death, dying, mourning, continuations with the dead, and all things possibly related to death. At my current institution, I am an intern at Yale’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, which has reinforced my love of the archives. Next year, I will intern at Yale Peabody Museum, working with their anthropology collections, doing research, curation, exhibition, and more! I plan to work in settings like this at an academic institution and possibly teach part-time. 

•  Give us insight into your current research project(s).

I am currently working on three research projects. One is my thesis, where I am doing comparative work on Curanderismo, a Mexican healing tradition, and Santeria, an African Diaspora Religion. I am discussing and comparing how they view, approach, and attempt healing and how their communities make sense of illness and subsequent healing. Another research project concerns death meditations and rituals of various African Diaspora Religions in the Caribbean. I am writing about their various cosmologies around death and comparing them to an Indigenous Amazonian society. My final project is about Christian nationalism in Puerto Rico. The paper aims to wrestle with and answer questions about Puerto Rican colonization, politics, religion, and decolonial theology.  

•  In what ways do you think your research addresses pressing societal
  challenges?

My research is a pushback against mainstream religious studies and religious discourse. I am interested in expanding the definitions of religion. I am interested in centering decolonial thinking and indigenous epistemologies. Overall, I see my work as uplifting marginalized voices and experiences. 

• How do you see your career/research develop and evolve in the near future?

Being so early in my own research and career, I am open to whatever ways I and it evolve. I plan to stay in academic institutions and see my research expanding into other literary areas. While my research projects are strictly academic-related, I am interested in combining my passion for creative writing with my academic interests, whether through fiction, poetry, or something else. 

• From your experience, what advice would you give to younger scholars?

I am still early in my career and a young scholar. What would I have said to my undergraduate self, or even myself, a year ago? Leap. You can do hard things and be open to whatever changes may stir you to operate differently. Go to those conferences. Email those you are interested in working with academically. Take every opportunity you can while you can. You will never have the freedom and space to explore more than you do right now. And yes, school is undoubtedly vital, but make time for your passions outside of the classroom. You are best when you exist holistically and bring all of yourself into what you do and say.

•  What role do you see the AASR playing in your career trajectory?

As a recent member, joining only in the last year, I have not had the opportunity to engage with this community in person. However, I have deeply enjoyed reading and seeing what this community is doing. I am excited about how this community will shape me and impact my career and life. 

• Tell us some of the challenge(s) you encountered in your career and how you
  surmounted them. What lessons did you learn?

The biggest challenge in my career thus far has been navigating the academic world as a first-generation college student, graduate, and person of color. I have witnessed how these institutions are not made for people who look and act like me. I have seen opportunities pass me by because I simply never knew they could exist for me. I have begun to overcome these challenges through my community of mentors who have been in my shoes before and are helping chart the way ahead of me. Their wisdom, encouragement, and lives themselves bring me hope. Finding a community that understands who I am, where I come from, and where I aim to go is rare, and I have started to find those people. I would not be where I am today without them and my family. I am a product of them and forever indebted to their belief in me. This community is another part of that network for me now; thank you!