Associate Professor, Associate Chair and Director of the Program in Undergraduate Studies
He/Him/His
Office Information:
3642 Haven Hall, 1045
734-647-3341
Fields of Study:
visual, material culture, and consumption studies;speculative fiction studies;Latina/o Chicana/o studies
Education/Degree:
PhD, University of California Santa Barbara, 2014PhD, Arizona State University, 2011 (Design, Environment, and the Arts - Industrial Design)
About
Professor Calvo-Quirós’ research and teaching center on the connections and intersections among the multidisciplinary fields of Religion, Aesthetics, and both virtual and physical Spaces. His early work focused on car subcultures and how cars manifest American values and histories, particularly examining car customizations and their use of color and design methodologies. His most recent book, titled Undocumented Saints: The Politics of Migrating Devotions, explores the translocation of popular saints and devotions into the U.S. and the evolution of their meanings.
His book, Undocumented Saints, has received the following awards:
- 2024: Best First Book Award in the History of Religions, American Academy of Religion.
- 2023: Frank S. and Elizabeth D. Brewer Prize, American Society of Church History.
The book explores how people's struggles for survival are expressed within the realms of faith, religiosity, and the imaginary, framing their popular religious expressions. It also examines the emergence of inter-religious states and transnational ethnic and cultural enclaves unified by faith and religion. The book focuses on five vernacular saints that have emerged in Latino America, whose devotions have migrated to the U.S. over the past one hundred years. This book is available in an open-access format, thanks to funding from TOME (Toward an Open Monograph Ecosystem) and the University of Michigan in collaboration with Oxford University Press.
His research is recognized internationally, as he frequently travels abroad to present his findings and collaborate with scholars from around the world. He is a member of the International Sociological Association, serving as a founding member and current co-president of Thematic Group 12: Social Love and Solidarity. Additionally, he serves as a board member of SocialOne, an international group of scholars interested in studying and understanding social love and care on a global scale. He has also been a board and consultant member for the Love World Index.
Professor Calvo-Quirós' interests also encompass digital religious studies, methodologies and online spiritualities, as well as the exploration of the power of empathy and forgiveness to formulate new discourses of dialogue in America.
His current research, OnlineGod: Digital Religious Practices in the Cloud, focuses on how digital platforms reshape and re-imagine religious experiences. The project documents how practices such as prayer, worship, and rituals are conducted online, as well as how religious digital communities foster connection, maintain cohesion, and challenge traditional forms of worship and spiritual engagement. In other words, what does it mean for religion to go "digital," and how do these emerging online spiritual expressions influence people's beliefs and practices?
RESEARCH AREAS OF INTEREST:
- Religion, aesthetics, and cultural studies
- Digital religion
- Ethnographic research methods and theory
AFFILIATIONS:
Core Faculty: Program in Latina/o Studies (LS)
Professor Calvo Quirós holds a joint appointment in the LSA Department of American Culture (AC) and by courtesy in the Stamps School of Art and Design. He is also affiliated with the Program of Transcultural Studies and the Center for Ethics, Society, and Computing (ESC) at the University of Michigan.
OTHER INTERNATIONAL AFFILIATIONS:
- Social Theory, Digital Innovation, and Public Policies, Department of Political and Social Sciences, University of Salerno, Italy | Affiliated Faculty
- Master of Social Anthropology, School of Anthropology, Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla (BUAP), Puebla, México | Affiliated Faculty.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
(Request a CV for the updated version)
Book Manuscript:
Undocumented Saints: The Politics of Migrating Devotions. New York: Oxford University Press. 2022.
Academic Editor Service:
2022 – 2026 Lowrider Studies Book Series | Series Co-editor | Peter Lang Publishing, New York | USA.
2022 – 2023 “AI and Emotions in Digital Society” | Editorial Advisory Board | IGI Global, Pennsylvania | USA.
Peer-Reviewed (Refereed) Journal Articles:
Single Author Journal Articles:
2024Calvo-Quirós, W. A. Radical Love: Changing the World from Within.” *Forthcoming
2023.
Calvo-Quirós, W. A. “The Standpoint of Hope and the Decolonial Ethno-Poetics of Radical Love.” Society 61, [Nov 29, 2023/Feb 2024]:18-25.
Calvo-Quirós, W. A. “Le illusioni del potere: oltre il Patriarcato verso la diversità” [The Illusions of Power: Beyond Patriarchy and towards Diversity.] Nuova Umanitá 247, XLIV I, [Spring 2023] Rome, Italy]: 11 – 30.
2016 [2017]
Calvo-Quirós, W. A. “The Emancipatory Power of the Imaginary: Defining Chican@ Speculative Productions.” Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies 41, no. 1 [Spring 2016]: 155 – 170. [*This piece was reprinted in the anthology Altermundos: Latin@ Speculative Literature, Film, and Popular Culture. Ed. Cathryn Josefina Merla-Watson and B. V. Olguín, UCLA Chicano Research Center Press, Los Angeles, 2017]: 39-54.
2014
Calvo-Quirós, W. A. “Sal Castro: Thank You Maestro.” Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies 39, no. 2 [Fall 2014]: 155 – 165.
2014 [2018]
Calvo-Quirós, W. A. “The Aesthetics of Healing and Love: An Epistemic Genealogy of Jota/o Aesthetic Traditions.” Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies 39, no. 1 [Spring 2014]: 181 – 194. [* This piece was reprinted in the anthology: Routledge Handbook of Chicana/o Studies, eds. Francisco A. Lomelí, Denise A. Segura and Elyette Benjamin-Labarthe (New York, NY: Taylor & Francis Group/Routledge, 2019], 347 – 357.
2013
Calvo-Quirós, W. A. “The Politics of Color: Chromophobia, Chromo-Eugenics, and the Epistemologies of Taste.” Chicana/Latina Studies: The Journal of Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social [MALCS] 13, no. 1 [Fall 2013]: 76 – 116.
Collaborative Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles:
2020
A.M. da. C. Braga, W. Calvo-Quirós, P. Contini and P. Pellegrini, “Migrazioni e inclusione: L’agire agapico di singoli, gruppi e istituzioni.” Nuova Umanitá no. 237 [Jan. - March 2020], Rome, Italy. 43 – 56.
Book Chapters:
Single Author Chapters:
2024
Calvo-Quirós, William A. “Las Soberanías Interreligiosas de Santo Toribio Romo en los EE.UU” [The Interreligious Sovereignties of Santo Toribio Romo.].” América Migrante: Creencias, prácticas y actitudes colectivas entorno a las devociones migrantes en América Latina. Latin America Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO), Librería Latino Americana y Caribeña de Ciencias Sociales. Mexico City, Mexico. 583-620.
2022
Calvo-Quirós, W. A. “Radical Love and Forgiveness: Re-Suturing the Social Racial Wounds [of Mass Shootings] in the United States” Social Love and the Critical Potential of People: When the Social Reality Challenges the Sociological Imagination, eds. Silvia Cataldi and Gennaio Iorio. New York, NY: Routledge, 2022. 297-315
2021
Calvo-Quirós, W. A. “Protests, Prayers, and Protections: Three Visitations during COVID-19.” Being Human during COVID, ed. Kristin A. Hass, Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2021. 181-199.
2020
Calvo-Quirós, W. A. “On being in-between: Re-suturing the self.” Interculturallità e pluralism: Scienze umane a confronto ed. Caterina Genna, series: Filosofia Italiana. Milano, Italy: FrancoAgeli, 2020. 370-383.
2016
Calvo-Quirós, W. A. “But Deliver Us from Evil: Latin@ Monsters Theory and the Outlining of our Phantasmagoric Landscapes.” The Routledge Companion to Latina/o Popular Culture, ed. Frederick Luis Aldama, London and New York: Routledge, 2016. 381 – 393.
2014
Calvo-Quirós, W. A. “Sucking Vulnerability: The Chupacabras, and the Post-Cold War Years.” In The Un/Making of Latina/o Citizenship: Culture, Politics and Aesthetics, ed. Ellie D. Hernández and Eliza Rodriguez y Gibson. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan. Fall 2014. 211 – 234.
2014
Calvo-Quirós, W. A. “Chupacabras: The Strange Case of Carlos Salinas de Gortari and his Transformation into the Chupatodo.” In Crossing the Borders of the Imagination, edited by María del Mar Ramón Torrijos. Madrid, Spain: Instituto Franklin de Estudios Norteamericanos, Universidad de Alcalá. Spring 2014. 95 – 108.
2007
Calvo-Quirós, W. A. “Driving the Streets of Aztlán: Low ’n Slow.” In One Hundred Years of Loyalty in Honor of Luis Leal/Cien Años de Lealtad en Honor a Luis Leal Vol. II, eds. Sara Poot Herrera, Francisco A. Lomelí and María Sobek-Herrera. Mexico City: University of California, Santa Barbara, 2007. 1115 – 1134.
2004
Calvo-Quirós, W. A. “Form and Function Follows Culture: Lowriders in America.” Conference Procedures: Eastman National Educational Conference, Industrial Design Studies Association IDSA, Design Center Pasadena, California. 2004. 41 – 45.
Collaborative Chapters:
2023
Calvo-Quirós, W. A. and L. Carrera. “Rebuilding Hometowns: Religious Worship as an Identity and Tourist Strategies of Place-Making.” Fuori Luogo Rivista di Sociologia del Territorio, Turismo, Tecnologia. Italy. Vol 14 No 1 (2023): 15 – 26.
Calvo-Quirós, W. A. Nocella, Ramos, and Avilés Rodriguez. “Introduction: On the Condition of Lowriders Studies.” The Lowriders Reader, ed. Anthony J. Nocella I. Peter Lang Publishing. It includes twelve chapters. [Introduction: The first book of a series, 2023].
2022
Calvo-Quirós, W. A., A.M. Keuho, and A. Braga. “Love Beyond Coloniality: Encountering the Other, Love Precarity, and the Idiosyncrasies of Love from the South” Social Love and the Critical Potential of People: When the Social Reality Challenges the Sociological Imagination, eds. Silvia Cataldi and Gennaio Iorio. New York, NY: Routledge, 2022. 299 – 316.
Edited Academic Journals Editions and/or Dossiers:
2021
Calvo-Quirós, W. A., S. Cataldi, P.H. Martins, P. Parra Saiani, and M. Salas.
“Acciones, interacciones y utopías. ¿Pueden las ciencias sociales proponer una alternativa a la sociedad contemporánea?” ("Actions, interactions and utopias. Can the social sciences propose an alternative to contemporary society?"), Miríada: Investigación en Ciencias Sociales. Universidad del Salvador, Argentina. 12: 17 [2021].
2014
Garcia, Mario, and Calvo-Quirós, W. A.. “Sal Castro—A Teacher: On the Live and Legacy of Sal Castro.” Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies. 39: 2 [Fall 2014]: 130 – 175.
Op-eds, Guest Essays & Paper Proceedings:
2022
Calvo-Quirós, W. A. “The Great Spiritual Migration: Religious Intrastates and the Limits of State Sovereignty.” Seventh Biennial Conference on Religion and American Culture, Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture, Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). Indianapolis, IN.
Accepted In Press/Production:
2024
Calvo-Quirós, W. A. “Las Soberanías Interreligiosas de Santo Toribio Romo en los EE.UU” (The Interreligious Sovereignties of Santo Toribio Romo in the U.S.A.).” América Migrante: Creencias, prácticas y actitudes colectivas entorno a las devociones migrantes en América Latina. Latin America Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO), Librería Latino Americana y Caribeña de Ciencias Sociales. Mexico City, Mexico. [Book Chapter: 2024].
Under Revision:
2024
Calvo-Quirós, W. A. “La Santa Muerte: Apocalyptic Times and the Rewriting of Spiritual Codes of Affiliation.” Religion and American Culture: A Journal of Interpretation. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA. [Journal Article]
About
Professor Calvo-Quirós’ research and teaching center on the connections and intersections among the multidisciplinary fields of Religion, Aesthetics, and both virtual and physical Spaces. His early work focused on car subcultures and how cars manifest American values and histories, particularly examining car customizations and their use of color and design methodologies. His most recent book, titled Undocumented Saints: The Politics of Migrating Devotions, explores the translocation of popular saints and devotions into the U.S. and the evolution of their meanings.
His book, Undocumented Saints, has received the following awards:
- 2024: Best First Book Award in the History of Religions, American Academy of Religion.
- 2023: Frank S. and Elizabeth D. Brewer Prize, American Society of Church History.
The book explores how people's struggles for survival are expressed within the realms of faith, religiosity, and the imaginary, framing their popular religious expressions. It also examines the emergence of inter-religious states and transnational ethnic and cultural enclaves unified by faith and religion. The book focuses on five vernacular saints that have emerged in Latino America, whose devotions have migrated to the U.S. over the past one hundred years. This book is available in an open-access format, thanks to funding from TOME (Toward an Open Monograph Ecosystem) and the University of Michigan in collaboration with Oxford University Press.
His research is recognized internationally, as he frequently travels abroad to present his findings and collaborate with scholars from around the world. He is a member of the International Sociological Association, serving as a founding member and current co-president of Thematic Group 12: Social Love and Solidarity. Additionally, he serves as a board member of SocialOne, an international group of scholars interested in studying and understanding social love and care on a global scale. He has also been a board and consultant member for the Love World Index.
Professor Calvo-Quirós' interests also encompass digital religious studies, methodologies and online spiritualities, as well as the exploration of the power of empathy and forgiveness to formulate new discourses of dialogue in America.
His current research, OnlineGod: Digital Religious Practices in the Cloud, focuses on how digital platforms reshape and re-imagine religious experiences. The project documents how practices such as prayer, worship, and rituals are conducted online, as well as how religious digital communities foster connection, maintain cohesion, and challenge traditional forms of worship and spiritual engagement. In other words, what does it mean for religion to go "digital," and how do these emerging online spiritual expressions influence people's beliefs and practices?
RESEARCH AREAS OF INTEREST:
- Religion, aesthetics, and cultural studies
- Digital religion
- Ethnographic research methods and theory
AFFILIATIONS:
Core Faculty: Program in Latina/o Studies (LS)
Professor Calvo Quirós holds a joint appointment in the LSA Department of American Culture (AC) and by courtesy in the Stamps School of Art and Design. He is also affiliated with the Program of Transcultural Studies and the Center for Ethics, Society, and Computing (ESC) at the University of Michigan.
OTHER INTERNATIONAL AFFILIATIONS:
- Social Theory, Digital Innovation, and Public Policies, Department of Political and Social Sciences, University of Salerno, Italy | Affiliated Faculty
- Master of Social Anthropology, School of Anthropology, Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla (BUAP), Puebla, México | Affiliated Faculty.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
(Request a CV for the updated version)
Book Manuscript:
Undocumented Saints: The Politics of Migrating Devotions. New York: Oxford University Press. 2022.
Academic Editor Service:
2022 – 2026 Lowrider Studies Book Series | Series Co-editor | Peter Lang Publishing, New York | USA.
2022 – 2023 “AI and Emotions in Digital Society” | Editorial Advisory Board | IGI Global, Pennsylvania | USA.
Peer-Reviewed (Refereed) Journal Articles:
Single Author Journal Articles:
2024Calvo-Quirós, W. A. Radical Love: Changing the World from Within.” *Forthcoming
2023.
Calvo-Quirós, W. A. “The Standpoint of Hope and the Decolonial Ethno-Poetics of Radical Love.” Society 61, [Nov 29, 2023/Feb 2024]:18-25.
Calvo-Quirós, W. A. “Le illusioni del potere: oltre il Patriarcato verso la diversità” [The Illusions of Power: Beyond Patriarchy and towards Diversity.] Nuova Umanitá 247, XLIV I, [Spring 2023] Rome, Italy]: 11 – 30.
2016 [2017]
Calvo-Quirós, W. A. “The Emancipatory Power of the Imaginary: Defining Chican@ Speculative Productions.” Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies 41, no. 1 [Spring 2016]: 155 – 170. [*This piece was reprinted in the anthology Altermundos: Latin@ Speculative Literature, Film, and Popular Culture. Ed. Cathryn Josefina Merla-Watson and B. V. Olguín, UCLA Chicano Research Center Press, Los Angeles, 2017]: 39-54.
2014
Calvo-Quirós, W. A. “Sal Castro: Thank You Maestro.” Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies 39, no. 2 [Fall 2014]: 155 – 165.
2014 [2018]
Calvo-Quirós, W. A. “The Aesthetics of Healing and Love: An Epistemic Genealogy of Jota/o Aesthetic Traditions.” Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies 39, no. 1 [Spring 2014]: 181 – 194. [* This piece was reprinted in the anthology: Routledge Handbook of Chicana/o Studies, eds. Francisco A. Lomelí, Denise A. Segura and Elyette Benjamin-Labarthe (New York, NY: Taylor & Francis Group/Routledge, 2019], 347 – 357.
2013
Calvo-Quirós, W. A. “The Politics of Color: Chromophobia, Chromo-Eugenics, and the Epistemologies of Taste.” Chicana/Latina Studies: The Journal of Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social [MALCS] 13, no. 1 [Fall 2013]: 76 – 116.
Collaborative Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles:
2020
A.M. da. C. Braga, W. Calvo-Quirós, P. Contini and P. Pellegrini, “Migrazioni e inclusione: L’agire agapico di singoli, gruppi e istituzioni.” Nuova Umanitá no. 237 [Jan. - March 2020], Rome, Italy. 43 – 56.
Book Chapters:
Single Author Chapters:
2024
Calvo-Quirós, William A. “Las Soberanías Interreligiosas de Santo Toribio Romo en los EE.UU” [The Interreligious Sovereignties of Santo Toribio Romo.].” América Migrante: Creencias, prácticas y actitudes colectivas entorno a las devociones migrantes en América Latina. Latin America Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO), Librería Latino Americana y Caribeña de Ciencias Sociales. Mexico City, Mexico. 583-620.
2022
Calvo-Quirós, W. A. “Radical Love and Forgiveness: Re-Suturing the Social Racial Wounds [of Mass Shootings] in the United States” Social Love and the Critical Potential of People: When the Social Reality Challenges the Sociological Imagination, eds. Silvia Cataldi and Gennaio Iorio. New York, NY: Routledge, 2022. 297-315
2021
Calvo-Quirós, W. A. “Protests, Prayers, and Protections: Three Visitations during COVID-19.” Being Human during COVID, ed. Kristin A. Hass, Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2021. 181-199.
2020
Calvo-Quirós, W. A. “On being in-between: Re-suturing the self.” Interculturallità e pluralism: Scienze umane a confronto ed. Caterina Genna, series: Filosofia Italiana. Milano, Italy: FrancoAgeli, 2020. 370-383.
2016
Calvo-Quirós, W. A. “But Deliver Us from Evil: Latin@ Monsters Theory and the Outlining of our Phantasmagoric Landscapes.” The Routledge Companion to Latina/o Popular Culture, ed. Frederick Luis Aldama, London and New York: Routledge, 2016. 381 – 393.
2014
Calvo-Quirós, W. A. “Sucking Vulnerability: The Chupacabras, and the Post-Cold War Years.” In The Un/Making of Latina/o Citizenship: Culture, Politics and Aesthetics, ed. Ellie D. Hernández and Eliza Rodriguez y Gibson. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan. Fall 2014. 211 – 234.
2014
Calvo-Quirós, W. A. “Chupacabras: The Strange Case of Carlos Salinas de Gortari and his Transformation into the Chupatodo.” In Crossing the Borders of the Imagination, edited by María del Mar Ramón Torrijos. Madrid, Spain: Instituto Franklin de Estudios Norteamericanos, Universidad de Alcalá. Spring 2014. 95 – 108.
2007
Calvo-Quirós, W. A. “Driving the Streets of Aztlán: Low ’n Slow.” In One Hundred Years of Loyalty in Honor of Luis Leal/Cien Años de Lealtad en Honor a Luis Leal Vol. II, eds. Sara Poot Herrera, Francisco A. Lomelí and María Sobek-Herrera. Mexico City: University of California, Santa Barbara, 2007. 1115 – 1134.
2004
Calvo-Quirós, W. A. “Form and Function Follows Culture: Lowriders in America.” Conference Procedures: Eastman National Educational Conference, Industrial Design Studies Association IDSA, Design Center Pasadena, California. 2004. 41 – 45.
Collaborative Chapters:
2023
Calvo-Quirós, W. A. and L. Carrera. “Rebuilding Hometowns: Religious Worship as an Identity and Tourist Strategies of Place-Making.” Fuori Luogo Rivista di Sociologia del Territorio, Turismo, Tecnologia. Italy. Vol 14 No 1 (2023): 15 – 26.
Calvo-Quirós, W. A. Nocella, Ramos, and Avilés Rodriguez. “Introduction: On the Condition of Lowriders Studies.” The Lowriders Reader, ed. Anthony J. Nocella I. Peter Lang Publishing. It includes twelve chapters. [Introduction: The first book of a series, 2023].
2022
Calvo-Quirós, W. A., A.M. Keuho, and A. Braga. “Love Beyond Coloniality: Encountering the Other, Love Precarity, and the Idiosyncrasies of Love from the South” Social Love and the Critical Potential of People: When the Social Reality Challenges the Sociological Imagination, eds. Silvia Cataldi and Gennaio Iorio. New York, NY: Routledge, 2022. 299 – 316.
Edited Academic Journals Editions and/or Dossiers:
2021
Calvo-Quirós, W. A., S. Cataldi, P.H. Martins, P. Parra Saiani, and M. Salas.
“Acciones, interacciones y utopías. ¿Pueden las ciencias sociales proponer una alternativa a la sociedad contemporánea?” ("Actions, interactions and utopias. Can the social sciences propose an alternative to contemporary society?"), Miríada: Investigación en Ciencias Sociales. Universidad del Salvador, Argentina. 12: 17 [2021].
2014
Garcia, Mario, and Calvo-Quirós, W. A.. “Sal Castro—A Teacher: On the Live and Legacy of Sal Castro.” Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies. 39: 2 [Fall 2014]: 130 – 175.
Op-eds, Guest Essays & Paper Proceedings:
2022
Calvo-Quirós, W. A. “The Great Spiritual Migration: Religious Intrastates and the Limits of State Sovereignty.” Seventh Biennial Conference on Religion and American Culture, Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture, Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). Indianapolis, IN.
Accepted In Press/Production:
2024
Calvo-Quirós, W. A. “Las Soberanías Interreligiosas de Santo Toribio Romo en los EE.UU” (The Interreligious Sovereignties of Santo Toribio Romo in the U.S.A.).” América Migrante: Creencias, prácticas y actitudes colectivas entorno a las devociones migrantes en América Latina. Latin America Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO), Librería Latino Americana y Caribeña de Ciencias Sociales. Mexico City, Mexico. [Book Chapter: 2024].
Under Revision:
2024
Calvo-Quirós, W. A. “La Santa Muerte: Apocalyptic Times and the Rewriting of Spiritual Codes of Affiliation.” Religion and American Culture: A Journal of Interpretation. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA. [Journal Article]
