Michael Pasquier

Dr. Pasquier is the Jaak Seynaeve Professor of Christian Studies in the LSU Religious Studies and History Department and also serves as Associate Dean for the LSU College of Humanities and Social Sciences.  Previously, he was Chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies. He specializes in the history of religion in the United States, with areas of concentration in American Catholicism and religion in the U.S. South. Dr. Pasquier is currently at work on an introduction to American Catholic history and an environmental history of religion in coastal Louisiana.  

Dr. Pasquier's work on religion and culture in the Mississippi River Valley has been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Whiting Foundation. He is the editor of Gods of the Mississippi, a collection of essays on the history of religion in the Mississippi Valley; co-producer of the film Water Like Stone, a documentary about a Louisiana fishing village facing environmental and economic decay; and producer of the podcast Coastal Voices, an audio documentary series that explores the relationship between people, land, and water in coastal Louisiana.

Michael Pasquier received his B.A. at LSU in 2002, with majors in History and Religious Studies. He received his PhD. in American Religious History at Florida State University in 2007. He was a Visiting Scholar at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2008-2009. He has been a member of the LSU Religious Studies faculty since 2008. While at LSU, Dr. Pasquier served as Director of the Religious Studies Program (2013-2019) and Director of the Center for Collaborative Knowledge (2018-2021).