MSU faculty member’s debut book on Coptic Christian migration wins national book prize
Contact: Sarah Nicholas
STARKVILLE, Miss.—Mississippi State Assistant Professor Candace Lukasik has received the Alixa Naff Prize in Migration Studies for her debut book “Martyrs and Migrants: Coptic Christians and the Persecution Politics of US Empire,” published last year by NYU Press.
The annual prize, awarded by the Khayrallah Center for Lebanese Diaspora Studies at North Carolina State University, recognizes outstanding scholarly work examining migration, refugees and diasporas connected to the Middle East.
“Receiving the Alixa Naff Prize is a tremendous honor,” Lukasik said. “‘Martyrs and Migrants’ draws on more than a decade of research with Coptic Christians moving between Egypt and the U.S. to show how stories of persecution, migration and belonging are entangled in powerful political ways. I hope the book encourages readers to see Middle Eastern Christians not only through the lens of persecution, but also through the everyday struggles and aspirations that shape migrant life.”
Drawing on more than a decade of research with Coptic Christian communities in Egypt and the U.S., Lukasik’s book explores how migrants navigate religious identity, political narratives and belonging across national and cultural boundaries.
Lukasik joined the MSU Department of Philosophy and Religion in 2022 and also serves as an affiliate faculty member in the university’s Department of Anthropology and Middle Eastern Cultures.
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. She also received a fellowship from the Crown Center for Middle East Studies at Brandeis University in 2024 and the AAUW American Postdoctoral Research Leave fellowship in 2023. Lukasik earned her Ph.D. in sociocultural anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley in 2020.
For more about MSU’s College of Arts and Sciences and its Department of Philosophy and Religion, visit www.cas.msstate.edu and www.philosophyandreligion.msstate.edu.
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