Abraham Hawley Suárez
About:
About
Abraham is a Ph.D. candidate in the UCSB Department of Religious Studies. He earned a B.A. with Honors in Communication Sciences from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), an M.A. in Sociology from El Colegio de México, and an M.A. in Religious Studies from UCSB.
His research examines the use and transformation of religion and secularism as governance categories in Mexico under the López Obrador regime. Abraham analyzes how collaborative initiatives involving interreligious actors within Mexico’s new religious policy are redefining the relationship between religion and the state in a nation with a strong secular tradition. Through a multisited ethnography with bureaucrats managing religious affairs, his work sheds light on the entanglement of governmental and academic discourses on peace, religious freedom, and pluralism, and how increasingly influential evangelical minorities are leveraging these discourses. His project also considers the implications of these changes for marginalized non-Christian minorities and the local and transnational interests shaping public views of religion and the secular in Latin America.
Abraham has been a lecturer at the UNAM School of Political and Social Sciences. He is a co-founder and active member of the interdisciplinary group of early-career researchers of religion in Latin America, Seminario de Intersecciones de lo Religioso (SEMIR). As a Fulbright Fellow, he seeks to strengthen connections between Mexican and U.S. Religious Studies debates. In his free time, he enjoys playing guitar and creating music as part of the indie-folk band jawli.
Recent publications
Hawley, A. (2024). Do Mexicans support a secular regime? Types of attitudes towards secularism policies in four religious groups. In J. Tyssens, N. De Nutte & S. Schröder (Eds.), The non-religious and the state. Seculars crafting their lives in different frameworks from the age of revolution to the current day (pp. 147–166). Berlin: De Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111337982-008
Blankholm, J.; Cragun, R.; Hawley, A. & Stephen, S. (2024). The Beliefs of Nonbelievers: Exclusive Empiricism and Mortal Finitude Among Atheists and Agnostics. Sociology of Religion: A Quarterly Review; srae003, 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1093/socrel/srae003
Hawley, A. (2023). ¿Los mexicanos quieren un Estado laico? Tipología de attitudes hacia las políticas del secularismo en cuatro grupos de autoadscripción religiosa. Acta Sociológica, (92), 149–181. https://doi.org/10.22201/fcpys.24484938e.2023.92.87736
Vilchis, D.; Paz, E. & Hawley, A. (2023). La secularización como clave analítica para comprender algunas discusiones sobre diversidad sexual. In M. Molina & R. Velvet (Eds.) El principio de laicidad como base para las discusiones sobre género y sexualidad (pp. 13–39). Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México; IIJ.
Blancarte, R., & Hawley, A. (2022). Les Protestants Évangéliques Et La Laïcité au Mexique. In D. Koussens, G. Bucumi & B. Basdevant (Eds.), Le paradoxe évangélique. Sécularisation et laïcisation face aux protestantismes évangéliques (pp. 225–250). Université Laval. https://doi.org/10.1515/9782763757582-013
Hawley, A. (2022). Repensar y proteger la laicidad en la 4T: religiones y comunicación política en el gobierno de AMLO). In D. Lemus (Ed.), Comunicación Política en el Gobierno de AMLO. Mañaneras, disputas y actores en el espacio público en la 4T (pp. 83–97). Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.
