Lucy Ballard

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Lucy Ballard’s interests lie at the intersection of Islamic studies and American religion, applying an anthropological lens to the social processes of religious conversion.

Her work focuses on the racial politics of conversion and discourses of whiteness within American Muslim communities with particular attention to the various strategies of authenticity deployed by new Muslims, including intellectual learning and bodily performance.

Ms. Ballard received her Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies from Appalachian State University in Boone, NC, where she completed an ethnographic study of Muslim experiences in rural Appalachia and an honors thesis centered on a contextual reading of Tariq Ramadan. She also holds a Master of Theological Studies in Islamic Studies from Harvard Divinity School.