Daniel Vaca is a doctoral candidate in North American Religions. An historian of religion and culture, Daniel focuses his writing and teaching on Christianity in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. His current research explores the relationship between economic behavior and the religious thought, practice, and self-understanding of American Protestants.

Entitled "Book People: Evangelical Books and the Making of Contemporary Evangelicalism," Daniel's dissertation traces the twentieth-century history of evangelical book culture. With support from the Louisville Institute, the Lilly Endowment, and the Whiting Foundation, Daniel's work explains how evangelical books came to rank among American history's bestsellers and illustrates how books helped evangelicals to see themselves as members of a common Christian community. Daniel's next book project will explore the history of Christian fundraising in the United States, highlighting the diverse constellations of belief, behavior, law, and economy that have oriented habits of voluntary giving.

A contributing editor of the Social Science Research Council's The Immanent Frame, Daniel has helped organize conversations on such issues as how scholars understand and apply the "evangelical" category. In addition to participating in SSRC research initiatives on such issues as spirituality, political engagement, pluralism, and secularism, Daniel co-organized the Department of Religion's 2009 graduate student conference, which asked participants to reconceptualize and rehabilitate the notion of belief as an object of scholarly attention.

Before coming to Columbia, Daniel received his B.A. (2002) from the College of William and Mary and an M.A. (2005) from Cambridge University.