This past year, Mississippi State University professor Candace Lukasik received the Alixa Naff Prize in Migration Studies award for Best Book for her work, “Martyrs and Migrants: Coptic Christians and the Persecution Politics of US Empire.”

The Alixa Naff Prize in Migration Studies is an annual award by the Khayrallah Center for Lebanese Diaspora Studies at North Carolina State University. It recognizes outstanding scholarly work on migration and diasporas in the Middle East and North Africa. It honors Alixa Naff, a pioneer of Arab American history. 

Candace Lukasik is an assistant professor of religion at Mississippi State. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in political science and international relations, a master’s in Arab, Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies and a doctorate in sociocultural anthropology. She started her position at MSU in the fall of 2022. 

Lukasik’s book, “Martyrs and Migrants: Coptic Christians and the Persecution Politics of US Empire,” looks at the increasing American and Western interest in the persecution of Christians in the Middle East.

By definition, a Coptic Christian is someone from an ancient, indigenous Egyptian community representing the largest Christian population in the Middle East. Coptic essentially means “Egyptian,” and Lukasik uses the term to refer to people who are of either Egyptian descent, are Christians and attend a Coptic Orthodox Church or any others who attend a Coptic Orthodox Church.

Lukasik said that she wanted to think about the broader political frame, how it intersects with the everyday lives of Middle Eastern Christians and how they migrate to the United States, especially from Egypt. She also wanted to know what those immigrants encounter when they come to the U.S. 

“The book talks about the violence against Christians in the Middle East and in Egypt. The focus is solely on violence against Christians in places like Egypt or Iraq, without attending to other forms of violence that they experience, such as structural violence, like economic, social discrimination, in the Middle East and even in the places that they migrate to,” Lukasik said. “It is not just about the violence at the hands of Muslims that Middle Eastern Christians experience, but also other forms of erasure and invisibility that they have to experience.” 

The book compares what it is like to be a Coptic Christian in Egypt and the United States. Lukasik said that the book examines the dueling realities of being a Coptic Christian in Egypt, a predominantly Muslim country, and in the U.S., where they are often viewed as strictly Muslim when they migrate there. 

“They come to the United States, which is a predominantly Christian nation, but they are still subjected to a form of violence because a lot of Americans tend to racially profile them as Muslims,” Lukasik said. “Especially after the 9/11 attacks, they were misrecognized as Muslims. I kind of wanted to also focus on how counterterrorism efforts targeted them despite them being Christians and Muslims.”

Lukasik has been conducting research for the book since 2017, with the research concluding in 2022. The book was officially published in 2025.

Lukasik was inspired to write the book because she saw that a lot of violence and political suppression were happening to both Muslims and Christians, either claiming to seek asylum or by going through the U.S. green card lottery or diversity visa. Coptic Christians make up roughly 10% of Egypt’s population. They are also one of the highest recipients of the lottery system. 

“The award is pretty significant to me because it’s like the only specific prize that focuses on basically Middle East migration and diasporas. It was an honor to receive the prize because not just for me but, like, stories that I try to highlight in the book because Coptic Christians are the most populous community of Christians remaining in the Middle East,” Lukasik said.

Peyton Rogers, a senior majoring in social work, met Lukasik this semester while attending an Intro to Religion class she taught. 

“She brings a different perspective to faith. She is challenging me to think about what it means to be a Christian,” Rogers said. “In the past, and it still continues on, Christianity has been used to justify harmful things, but has also made an advancement for progressive thinking. I grew up thinking that faith was something that is simple-minded and hateful because that is how it was taught to me, but she has opened my eyes into thinking that that is not what faith is about.” 

Robert Thompson, a professor of philosophy and head of the Department of Philosophy and Religion at MSU, has known Lukasik since 2021. 

“We are very proud of her accomplishments,” Thompson said. “Her first book is getting the well-deserved recognition from the religious studies community. It has been discussed at a special session of the American Academy for Religion’s annual conference, and several universities have invited her to discuss her book at their universities.” 

Thompson said the book has been of interest to the religious studies community since before it was published.

“I have been giving her support from behind the scenes,” Thompson said. “The final manuscript process was supported by very competitive funding awards from the American Association of University Women and the Crown Center at Brandeis University.”

Peyton Rogers said that he has read her book and that, through the book’s content and Lukasik’s class, he has experienced spiritual and personal growth.

“She has opened me up to a world of what faith across borders looks like,” Rogers said. “She’s been a pivotal change in both my spiritual and personal growth as a person. She has even been monumental in my academics. I am thankful to have gotten to know her through this class this semester. Her book is phenomenal, and I think that it is definitely worth a read.”