Laura Ammon

Laura Ammon joined the Appalachian faculty in 2010 in the Department of Philosophy and Religion and is an associate professor of religion.

Her teaching focuses on engaging students in thoughtful ways to understand how humans construct meaning in their lives—within, alongside, and outside of traditional religious settings. Through this work, she helps students develop critical thinking skills on issues such as diversity, tolerance, racial equity, and social justice.

Her research explores the colonial past, examining how earlier generations understood their world and how those perspectives continue to shape modern ideas about race and religion. A second branch of her research looks toward imagined futures, asking enduring questions often associated with religion: Who are we? How do we make sense of our world? What makes life meaningful?

She has published multiple articles on the impact of colonization on world history, considering both historical events and how colonial contexts are re-imagined in science fiction. Most recently, she co-authored Religion in Sixteenth-Century Mexico: A Guide to Aztec and Catholic Beliefs and Practices (Cambridge University Press, 2022) with archaeologist Dr. Cheryl Claassen, faculty emeritus from Appalachian’s Department of Anthropology.

She earned a B.A. in liberal arts from Webster University in St. Louis, Missouri; an M.A. in religious studies from the University of Chicago; and a Ph.D. in religious studies from Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, California, in 2006.