Noor Amr

Bio

Noor Amr is a PhD Candidate in Anthropology at Stanford University. She is conducting dissertation research alongside the church asylum (Kirchenasyl) movement in Germany, paying attention to the relationship between religion, race/ethnicity, migration, sovereignty, and political belonging. Her ethnographic research explores how Christian sanctuary, a form of shelter from the state, becomes a means through which rejected asylum-seekers gain legibility as subjects worthy of legal recognition. Her broader theoretical interests include political theology, psychoanalysis, histories of sanctuary/confinement, and the coloniality of asylum.

Honors & Awards

• Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant, National Science Foundation (2023)
• Ric Weiland Graduate Fellowship in the Humanities & Sciences, Stanford University (2022-2024)
• Dissertation Fieldwork Grant, Wenner-Gren Foundation (2022)
• One-Year Research Grant for Doctoral Candidates, Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) (2022)
• Fritz Thyssen Pre-Dissertation Fellowship, German Historical Institute (2020)
• Frank O. Hamilton Graduate Fellowship in the School of Humanities and Sciences, Stanford University (2019-2022)
• James Souverine Gallo ’27 Memorial Fund Fellowship, Harvard University (2018-2019)
• Dean's Fellowship, Harvard University (2017-2019)

Professional Affiliations and Activities

• Fellow, Penn-Birmingham Transatlantic Fellowship Program (2023 - Present)
• Visiting Fellow, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Göttingen, Germany (2022 - Present)
• Co-Coordinator, Concerning Violence: A Collaborative Research Group, Stanford Humanities Center Research Workshop (2020 - 2022)

Education & Certifications

• Ph.D. Candidate (ABD), Stanford University, Sociocultural Anthropology (2021)
• M.T.S., Harvard Divinity School, Philosophy of Religion (2019)
• B.A., Willamette University, Politics, Minor: Philosophy (2015)