Staff profiles

Dr Afe Adogame PhD

Dr Afe Adogame Senior Lecturer in World Christianity

Tel: +44 (0)131 650 8928

I hold a PhD in History of Religions from the University of Bayreuth in Germany.

Until my appointment in 2005 to the Lectureship in World Christianity, I was Teaching and Senior Research Fellow at the Department for the Study of Religion and Institute of African Studies, Bayreuth University from 1995-1998 and from 2000-2005.

I was also a Lecturer in the Department of Religions, Lagos State University, Nigeria between 1998 and 2000.

Since August 2005 when I joined New College, I have been teaching wide-ranging postgraduate/undergraduate courses in World Christianity and Religious Studies.

As Associated and Supervisory Staff at the Centre of African Studies, I teach African Religions & Cosmologies in the MSc in Africa Programme.

Academic supervision

I would warmly welcome enquiries from potential research students concerning supervision of topics relating, but not exclusive to the area of African Religions African Christianity, Indigenous Religions, New Religious Movements and Religion in the new African Diaspora.

Additional areas of research interests on which I have supervised PhD/MSc/MTh dissertation/thesis include: religion and civil society; religion and politics; religion and media; religion, violence and conflict; and religion, migration and globalization.

Through my postgraduate teaching and supervision I aim to equip a new generation of young scholars with sharp analytical, methodological and multidisciplinary skills with respect to researching, exploring, understanding and interpreting religious phenomena in our fast-changing, globalizing cosmos.

Research interests

My broad research interests includes interrogating new dynamics of religious experience(s) and expression(s) in Africa and the African Diaspora, with a particular focus on African Christianity and New Indigenous Religious Movements; the interconnectedness between religion and migration, globalization, politics, economy, media and the civil society.

I have published extensively in these and other related topics. I authored Celestial Church of Christ: The Politics of Cultural Identity in a West African Prophetic-Charismatic Movement (1999); and have co-edited: European Traditions in the Study of Religion in Africa (2004), Religion in the Context of African Migration (2005); Christianity in Africa and the Africa Diaspora: The Appropriation of a Scattered Heritage (2008), Unpacking the New: Critical Perspectives on Cultural Syncretization in African and Beyond (2008)

My current research interests includes: Religion in the new African Diaspora; Religious transnationalism; Religion and Youth; and Religion in Prison

Teaching competence

African Christianity (African Initiated Churches & Pentecostal/Charismatic)
Indigenous Religions - sub Saharan Africa
Religion in the new African Diaspora, particularly Europe & USA
New Indigenous Religious Movements
Concepts and Methods in the Study of Christianity in the non-Western World
Selected Themes in the Study of non-Western Christianity
Religion, Migration and Globalization
Socio-scientific approaches to the study of religion

Academic interests and memberships

General Secretary, African Association for the Study of Religions
The British Association for the Study of Religion
African Studies Association
American Academy of Religion
International Sociological Association
Association for the Sociology of Religion
Society for the Scientific Study of Religion
The German Association for the History of Religions
Associate Editor, Studies in World Christianity, Edinburgh University Press
Member, Editorial Advisory Board, Journal of Religion in Africa (Brill Publishers)
Member, International Advisory Board, Africa Diaspora. A Journal of Transnational Africa in a Global World (Brill Publishers)
Board Member, Research Committee on Sociology of Religion RC22 of the International Sociological Association (representing Africa, 2006-2010)
External Examiner at PhD level in UK Universities of Birmingham, Liverpool, Sheffield, Gloucestershire and Lampeter.

Recent international awards

Senior Fellow, Harvard University Center for the Study of World Religions, Cambridge, MA, USA (2003/04)
The International Travel Award of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion (2005).

Selected publications

2010 Afe Adogame and Jim Spickard (eds) 'Religion Crossing Boundaries: Transnational Religious and Social Dynamics in Africa and the New African Diaspora' (Leiden: Brill)

2009 'Ranks and Robes: Art Symbolism and Identity in the Celestial Church of Christ in the European Diaspora' in Material Religion: The Journal of Objects, Art and Belief, (Berg Publishers) vol. 5, No. 1, March 2009. pp. 10-32 (23)

2009 'To God Be the Glory! Home Videos, the Internet, and Religio-Cultural Identity in Contemporary African Christianity', in Critical Interventions: Journal of African Art History and Visual Culture,No. 3/4, Spring 2009. pp. 147-159.

2009 'The 419 Code as Business Unusual: Youth and the Unfolding of the Advance Fee Fraud Online Discourse', in Asian Journal of Social Science, vol. 37, No. 4, 2009. pp. 551-573.

2009 'Practitioners of indigenous religions in Africa and the African diaspora' in Graham Harvey (ed.) Religions in Focus: New Approaches to Tradition and Contemporary Practices, London and Oakville, CT: Equinox, 2009