MSU scholar unpacks complexities of Coptic Christian migration in debut book
Contact: Sarah Nicholas
STARKVILLE, Miss.—Mississippi State Assistant Professor Candace Lukasik has published her first book “Martyrs and Migrants: Coptic Christians and the Persecution Politics of U.S. Empire” (NYU Press). The book examines how Coptic Christian migrants from Egypt navigate religious identity through the lens of American political and religious frameworks.
Drawing on extensive fieldwork, Lukasik explores how American evangelical narratives of global Christian persecution have reshaped Coptic collective memory, positioning Copts in a complex space between glorification and racialization. By analyzing the sociopolitical conditions in Egypt and the broader impact of the U.S. war on terror, Lukasik reveals how transnational Copts translate their suffering into both religious and political visibility.
Lukasik, who joined the MSU Department of Philosophy and Religion as a faculty member in 2022, said she wanted to offer a new perspective on Middle Eastern Christians.
“To the extent that Middle Eastern Christians have registered in Western political imaginaries at all, they are either glorified as being part of ‘ancient’ churches or as modern-day martyrs. Yet, these communities have increasingly migrated to the West and have also faced new forms of exclusion here. The book focuses on the everyday experiences of the Middle East’s largest Christian community—the Copts—as they grapple with their different minority positions between Egypt and the U.S.,” Lukasik said.
Lukasik was named a Young Scholar in American Religion by the Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture for its 2024-26 cohort. Supported by a Lilly Endowment grant, the Young Scholars program provides early career scholars with mentoring and professional development in publishing, grant writing, tenure preparation and other areas.
An affiliate faculty member in MSU’s Department of Anthropology and Middle Eastern Cultures, Lukasik was awarded a 2024-25 Faculty Leave Fellowship from Brandeis University’s Crown Center for Middle East Studies. She previously held a postdoctoral fellowship from 2020-22 at the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, and received an American Postdoctoral Research Leave Fellowship from the American Association of University Women for 2023-24. She earned her Ph.D. in sociocultural anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2020.
For more details about MSU’s College of Arts and Sciences or the Department of Philosophy and Religion, visit www.cas.msstate.edu or www.philosophyandreligion.msstate.edu.
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