Faculty & Staff Directory

Josefrayn Sanchez-Perry, PhD

About

Josefrayn Sánchez-Perry is an historian of religion and ritual, with a focus on Indigenous traditions of Mesoamerica, the early modern period, and trans-Atlantic colonialism. He has a Ph.D. in religious studies (University of Texas at Austin, 2021). He is interested in the formation of religious categories and their intersections with Native ceremonial practices as they appeared in material culture and Indigenous-language texts. He has collaborated on an open access Nahuatl curriculum created by Nahuatl-speakers, Sabina Cruz de la Cruz and Catalina Cruz de la Cruz (https://tlahtolli.coerll.utexas.edu/).

His current monograph, Give Drink to the Sun, questions the limits of applying Eurocentric theories of religion on Indigenous ceremonies. It demonstrates that household ritual specialists were official participants in the life cycles of the city-states, before and after European occupation. It also shows how “lifestyles” and “labors” organized bureaucratic systems that sustained all ritual spaces. The book embraces multidisciplinary approaches, from archeology to ethnohistory and pictorial documentation, and natural anthropologies from the medieval and early modern periods.

His research has been supported by the Newberry Library and the Hank Center for Catholic Intellectual Heritage.

Degrees

Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin

M.A. The University of Texas at Austin

M.Div. Southern Methodist University

B.A. Northwestern College

Program Areas

Theology-Religious Studies

Latin American and Latino Studies Program

Research Interests

Religion the Americas; Native American & Indigenous traditions; Mesoamerican religions; Colonialism and Mission Studies; Nahuatl and K’iche’ Languages