Dean Jan Love has announced that Jonathan E. Calvillo will join the Candler faculty in fall 2022 as assistant professor of Latinx communities. His appointment comes after a successful committee-led search chaired by Robert W. Woodruff Professor of Theology Ian A. McFarland.
“We are thrilled to welcome Jonathan Calvillo to the Candler faculty in this groundbreaking new tenure-track position,” says Love. “His research focus in sociology and Latinx studies reflects an ability to contribute to our broad theological curriculum and to situate his field within larger ecumenical, multifaith, and global contexts, which is essential to theological education today.”
Calvillo is currently assistant professor of sociology of religion at Boston University School of Theology and is also affiliated with Boston University’s department of sociology. His work examines how distinct Latinx populations build communities of belonging through faith and creativity, often in the face of systemic exclusion. His current projects focus on how churches shape Latinx civic engagement, how lived religion influences Latinx ethnoracial identities, and how young Latinx creatives have responded to urban inequalities through artistic resistance. He holds an MDiv from Talbot School of Theology, and an MA and PhD in sociology from the University of California, Irvine.
The author of numerous peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, Calvillo published his first monograph, The Saints of Santa Ana: Faith and Ethnicity in a Mexican Majority City (Oxford University Press), in 2020. He has presented at various conferences and been awarded multiple grants and fellowships, including a Latino Protestant Congregations Project Research Fellowship, a Notre Dame Global Religion Research Institute Curriculum Grant, and a Louisville Institute First Book for Minorities grant.
Calvillo is a member of the American Academy of Religion, the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, the Association for the Sociology of Religion, and the American Sociological Association. We look forward to welcoming him to Candler in the fall.