2024
Studying Religion from Africa, IAHR Congress Roundtable CfP
Call for contributions to a roundtable at the IAHR Congress in Krakow, Poland, 24-30 August 2025
Jointly organised by the African Association for the Study of Religions and the Africa Working Group of the German Association for the Study of Religions
The overall theme of the IAHR Congress 2025 being “Out of Europe”, this roundtable facilitates a conversation about what it means to study religion, not from a Eurocentric perspective, but from Africa. Too often, the African continent has been a place where empirical data about religion have been collected, simply to be analysed and theorised with the help of Western concepts and theories. This problematic, colonial model of knowledge production needs to be interrogated and transformed, not the least in the light of current debates about decolonising academic scholarship, and calls for theorising from global South contexts and perspectives. Hence, in this roundtable we ask: what does Africa contribute to the study of religion more generally, not just in terms of rich empirical data but also, and more importantly, in terms of critical concepts, innovative methodologies, and cutting-edgetheories? How can such African-centred approaches to the study of religion inform and enrich the study of religion in other parts of the world, including Europe? And how does our own positionality as academics – in terms of geographical origins and location, disciplinary training, (non)religious standpoints, gender, etc – affect and shape the ways in which we think about these questions?
We recognise that such questions are not entirely new, but that they have generated longstanding conversation, with key publications such as
• The volume edited by Jan Platvoet, James Cox and Jacob Olupona, titled The Study of Religions in Africa: Past, Present and Prospects, which is based on theproceedings of the regional conference of the International Association for the History of Religions, held in Harare, Zimbabwe, 1992 (Roots and Branches, 1996).
• The volume edited by Frieder Ludwig and Afe Adogame, titled European Traditions in the Study of Religion in Africa (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2004).
• The volume edited by Afe Adogame, Ezra Chitando, and Bolaji Bateye, titled African Traditions in the Study of Religion in Africa: Emerging Trends, Indigenous Spirituality and the Interface with Other World Religions(Ashgate, 2012).
• Birgit’s Meyer’s article “What Is Religion in Africa? Relational Dynamics in an Entangled World”, in the Journal of Religion in Africa (2020).
We invite participants to this roundtable who revisit some of these earlier conversations about the above questions, reflecting on them in the light of current discussions about decolonisation while acknowledging the changing dynamics of religion, and the study thereof, in Africa, the African diaspora, and in the global academy.
Expressions of interest
We welcome expressions of interest for participating in this roundtable, and we especially encourage early-career scholars to apply.
The IAHR Congress allows for physical attendance only, which we realise is a hindrance for participation, especially for scholars based on the African continent.
If you would like to be part of this roundtable, but cannot physically participate, please do write to us anyway, so we can think about other ways of continuing this conversation in the future.
Expressions of interest, of up to 250 words, should give an indication of the angle you will take to approaching the above questions, and of the contribution you want to make to the roundtable discussion. Please also include a short biographical statement.
The expressions can be sent to Dr Anne Beutter and Dr Adriaan van Klinken by 26th July 2024.
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2023
Remembering Professor Teresia Mbari Hinga
We are saddened to announce the transition of our dear friend and colleague of many decades, Professor Teresia Mbari Hinga. A Kenyan by birth, she studied religion and English literature at Kenyatta University, Nairobi, and then went on to earn an MA in religious studies at the University of Nairobi. Teresia also earned a Ph.D. in religious studies from Lancaster University, UK, focusing on African Christianity and the place of women and gender matters in African Christianity. Her postdoctoral research explored the question of “Women, Power and Liberation in the African Independent Church.”
Teresia was privileged to serve as a lecturer and associate fellow at the Women’s Studies in Religion Program (WSRP) at Harvard Divinity School from 1991 to 1992, during which she taught Professor Dianne Stewart who recently said that she considers Teresia to be one of her best teachers in graduate school. Teresia was a founding member of the “Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians,” a Pan-African association of women established by Professor Mercy Oduyoye. The Circle, in which Teresia played a major role, is concerned with the study of the role and impact of religion and culture on the lives and affairs of women in Africa. As a Catholic Theologian, she was also an active member of the Black Catholic Symposium of the American Academy of Religion. She has published numerous articles in academic journals and given many public lectures in the academy. For example, she gave the inaugural Kathleen Wicker endowed lecture at Scripps College in February 2006. Teresia was the first regional coordinator of the African Association for the Study of Religions (AASR) in the 1990s when I served as the first president of the Association.
Prior to joining Santa Clara University faculty in 2005, where she taught courses on women and religion, feminist theologies, African Religion and sociality, religion and contemporary moral issues, she worked at DePaul University in Chicago. Among her awards, she published African, Christian, and Feminist: The Enduring Search of What Matters (2017), a semi-biographical collection of essays examining Teresia’s journey from Kenya to Silicon Valley. She also published Women, Religion and HIV AIDS in Africa: Responding to Ethical and Theological Challenges (2008). Her research interests also include environmental/ ecological ethics, gender and sexual ethics, globalization, Biblical ethics, and African feminist theology.
Teresia will be remembered as a conscientious, hardworking, and affectionate scholar who gave her best to the academy, her students, and humanity. She was generous with her time and resources, a strong and indeed compassionate public intellectual. She will be sorely missed by friends and colleagues, but most especially by her two children Pauline and Anthony, her grandchildren, the Church, and the Kenyan and African community.
Respectfully submitted, Jacob K. Olupona, Harvard University
2022
AASR Annual Conference 2022 (Virtual) – Call for Papers
July 26 and 27
Topic: “Religion in Times of Crises”
Call for Papers
What is the impact of a crisis on religion and spirituality? The coronavirus pandemic has drastically impacted religion in Africa and the world. In March 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a worldwide pandemic. Since then, social distancing, vaccines, lockdown, virtual meetings, work from home, and face masks have entered into the global vocabulary. They are also increasingly deployed in religious communities and for the study of religion. The current pandemic has very multidimensional and serious effects on religion and spirituality.
In Zimbabwe, many “Muslims were content with their exclusion from the major Muslim shrines”. “Historical knowledge of previous cancellations and public health perceptions helped Muslims appreciate the multiple cancellations of pilgrimages to the holy shrines.” (Dube, 2022:208) For Christian Pentecostalism J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu states: “There has not been a monolithic response to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic among African Pentecostal/Charismatic figures.” (Asamoah-Gyadu, 2021:172) Reflecting on the influenza pandemic of 1918, this present crisis has transformed into an opportunity for spiritual awakening and for innovations in doctrines and theological instruction for some African-initiated churches (Fagunwa, 2020:61.52).
This year’s AASR conference will focus on religion in times of the COVID-19 crises. It will explore the challenges for, and transformations of, religion in the current pandemic and beyond that. Its broad themes are: Doing religion during COVID-19; Studying religion during COVID; Religion and society during COVID; and Religion in a post-COVID-19 society. We invite proposals for formal papers and poster presentations that reflect on the following questions, among others:
- How does the conceptualization of religion change in times of crisis?
- Which methodological innovations and approaches have emerged from studying religion during COVID-19?
- How are educational curricula and teaching as well as learning methods affected?
- How do religious communities handle the challenges of social justice, health care and calamity?
- What is the role of religion in defining a pandemic and formulating coping strategies?
- How are religious values and imaginations consulted and their meaning emphasized?
- To what extent do religious-inspired responses to a pandemic affect vulnerable groups of people (e.g. women, children, old people) disproportionately? Has the crisis aggravated their vulnerability?
- What are the effects on religion, culture, economy and politics, and how have those interacted in times of crisis?
- Are there positive aspects in the realm of crises? What are they?
Submission Information: Please submit any paper and poster presentation proposals for the virtual conference by April 1, 2022. Proposals should be emailed to secretary@a-asr.org.
Proposals should be approximately 300 words in length. Please include your name, institution, and email address in each proposal.
2021
Member publication: Black Minds Matter – Archbishop Milingo and the Vatican by Gerrie ter Haar
AASR member Prof Gerrie ter Haar has recently published a book on Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo titled Black Minds Matter – Archbishop Milingo and the Vatican.
“Black Minds Matter tells the story of one of the most outspoken clerics of Africa, Emmanuel Milingo, who was Archbishop of Lusaka from 1969 to 1983. Milingo became widely known for his healing ministry, which was rooted in African spiritual ideas. This brought him into years of conflict with the dominant powers in the Catholic Church, and eventually led to his excommunication in 2006…” (from https://www.ascleiden.nl/news/black-minds-matter-archbishop-milingo-and-vatican, where you can find further information).
We congratulate Prof Gerrie ter Haar for this new book.
Update: Leiden University has made Black Minds Matter freely available online at the moment, visit https://scholarlypublications.universiteitleiden.nl/handle/1887/3244218
2021
Inaugural Lecture: Professor Adriaan van Klinken:
Join AASR member Adriaan van Klinken on his inaugural professorial lecture titled “Reimagining Christianity and Sexual Diversity in Africa” at the Leeds University Centre for African Studies (LUCAS) and the School of Philosophy, Religion and History of Science (PRHS) on Thursday 28 October, 4:30pm.
Adriaan is Professor of Religion and African Studies at the University of Leeds, and Extraordinary Professor at the University of the Western Cape (South Africa), in the Desmond Tutu Centre for Religion and Social Justice. At Leeds, he is Director of both the Centre for Religion and Public Life and the Leeds University Centre for African Studies. His prolific research is predominantly focused on the intersection of religion, gender, and sexuality in contemporary African settings.
You can register here if you wish to attend in person, or join the event via live-stream.
