Erica Vogel, Ph.D.

Erica Vogel is a professor of anthropology at Saddleback College. She is a cultural anthropologist who conducts fieldwork primarily in South Korea, Peru, and Mexico looking at issues of globalization, migration, religious conversion, and transnational flows between Asia and Latin America. Her book Migrant Conversions: Transforming Connections Between Peru and South Korea was published by the UC Press in 2020 and is based on 24 months of fieldwork in Peru and South Korea with migrants and their families, their religious leaders, and government officials. Her current research project was funded by a grant from Mellon/ACLS and is called “K-Pop in Mexico: Creating and Consuming Globalization through La Ola Coreana.” She received her PhD in anthropology from the University of California, Irvine and held a Korea Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign. Erica is originally from Colorado and has taught at Saddleback College since 2014. Currently she is the Co-PI on a project where students who are members of the undocumented, former foster youth, and formerly incarcerated communities research issues of equity around their own communities on campus. In 2023 she received an Outstanding Professor award from Alpha Gamma Sigma Honor Society for "Inspiring teaching in Anthropology."