Ana Ramirez

Ana Ramirez is perceptive, impassioned scholar of Religion with a gift for asking big, hard questions. Her exceptional honors thesis, “Power and Danger Within the Stranger,” used concepts from religious studies (sacred and profane, purity and danger) to critically examine how US culture imagines the stranger, the foreigner, and the immigrant. Her thesis, which passed with high distinction, demonstrated how societies create borders and boundaries, arguing that we should develop more generous and just ways to relate to the proverbial other. Her Religious Studies concentration was in New Testament but she also studied Islam, Buddhism, Christianity, and indigenous religions, bringing a comparative approach to all of her projects. In Buddhism, for example, she brought her interest in issues of racial discrimination together with Buddhist meditative practices, showing how 21st-century iterations of Buddhist meditation are being used to help Black and Lantinx kids with “disciplinary problems.”  A recipient of the prestigious Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship while at Duke, she will stay on in Durham this coming year and prepare to apply to graduate schools.  We expect great things from Ana, and look forward to welcoming her as a fellow Professor one day!