Maggie Elmore

On leave for the 2025-2026 academic year.

Areas of Specialization

Borderlands, Migration, Religion and Politics, and Latina/o History

Education

Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley
M.A., Texas Tech University
B.A., Texas Tech University

Academic Interests & Research Narrative

As a historian of the borderlands, I am deeply interested in how law, race, religion, and politics shape migration experiences and border policies. My current book, Unholy Border: How Catholics Created New Gateways to the United States, is under contract with Penn Press. Based along the US-Mexico border, the book explores the role of Catholic immigration agencies in creating both gateways and barriers for migrants entering the United States. At is core, the book shows how the US federal government came to rely on Catholic groups to help regulate the southern border, and how individual migrants navigated the borderlands. In addition, I recently co-edited book with Felipe Hinojosa and Sergio González, Faith and Power: Latino Religious Politics since 1945, published with New York University Press in 2022. My forthcoming article, “In the Shadow of the Law: the Hanigan Case and the Genesis of the Immigrant Rights Movement,” looks at how the kidnap and torture of three Mexican farmworkers in Arizona led to an international immigrant rights movement in the late 1970s. I am also at work on two other book projects. The first of these is a co-edited collection that considers the intellectual and social legacy of Mexican American civil rights leader Carlos E. Castañeda. The second project, “An Illicit Trade: Religion and Human Trafficking in the Borderlands,” is in the very early stages of development. The book will span the mid-to-late 20th century and examine the role of faith groups as both advocates for survivors of trafficking as well as participants in human trafficking.

Selected Publications

Books

Unholy Border: How Catholics Created New Gateways to the United States, under contract with the University of Pennsylvania Press, Politics and Culture in Modern America Series. 

Faith and Power: Latino Religious Politics since 1945, co-edited with Felipe Hinojosa and Sergio González, New York University Press, 2022. 

Book Chapters

“Catholics, the State, and Latino Advocacy in World War II,” in Faith and Power: Latino Religious Politics since 1945, eds. Felipe Hinojosa, Maggie Elmore, and Sergio González, (New York University Press, 2022).

Articles

“In the Shadow of the Law: The Hanigan Case and the Genesis of the Immigrant Rights Movement,” The Journal of American History (September 2024).

“Presidential Martyr: How Kennedy’s Death Created New Political Possibilities for Mexican American Catholics,” Catholic Southwest: A Journal of History and Culture, volume 34, (November 2023).

“Fighting for Hemispheric Solidarity: The National Catholic Welfare Conference and the Quest to Secure Mexican American Employment Rights During World War II,” The US Catholic Historian, volume 35, number 2, (May 2017). 

Essays

“Using Immigration Case Files to Teach Migration and Religion,” Teaching History Journal (solicited review article in-progress).

Selected Activities

Awards

• Young Scholar in American Religion, Center for the Study of American Religion and Culture, Indiana University, Indianapolis (2023-2025)
• Patrick Foley Award for Best Article in the Catholic Southwest, Texas Catholic Historical Society (2024)

Fellowships

• Bill and Rita Clements Research Fellow for the Study of Southwestern America, Clements Center for Southwest Studies, Southern Methodist University (2021-2022)
• Postdoctoral Research Associate, Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism, University of Notre Dame (2018-2019)

Grants

• American Historical Association, Albert J. Beveridge Research Grant (2019)
• Dorothy Mohler Travel Research Grant, American Catholic History Research Center and University Archives at Catholic University of America (2018)

Recent Presentations

• “Good Catholics and Good Neighbors: The Catholic Church and Mexican Immigration in World War II,” Second World War Research Group, North America, Virtual Meeting, December 6, 2023
• “Presidential Martyr: How Kennedy’s Death Created New Political Realities for Mexican American Catholics,” Texas State Historical Association Annual Meeting, El Paso, TX, March 2023
• “‘Embracing the Gospel’: Creating a National Immigration Network, 1986-1996,” Western History Association, San Antonio, TX, October 2022

Regular Course Offerings

• Undergraduate:
  • HIS 1300 | US in Global Perspective - American Migrations

Other Courses Taught

• Undergraduate:
  • HIS 3380 | Texas History