Journal for the Study of the Religions of Africa and its Diaspora – Issue 6.1 (November 2023)

On behalf of Afe Adogame, the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal for the Study of the Religions of Africa and its Diaspora, an AASR e-Journal, we announce the publication of Issue 6.1 (November 2023). This is a Special Issue, which has been guest edited by Lovemore Togarasei and Rebecca Kubanji, with the theme “Religious Beliefs, Health Seeking and Health Provision Behaviours in Botswana”. The issue contains an Introduction and 8 original articles related to this theme.

The issue can be viewed and downloaded directly via this page. This and previous issues can be accessed via the journal page on the AASR website

Corey Williams

Remembering Professor Teresia Mbari Hinga

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

AASR 2022 Virtual Conference Schedule

Theme: “Religion in Times of Crisis”
Date: July 26 and 27, 2022

Though anxious to get back to in-person meetings (Yay, Kenya 2023!), we are absolutely thrilled to be gathering online this summer to hear extraordinary papers, keynotes, and celebrate our Association turning 30 years old! While the topics covered are heavily influenced by COVID-19, we have a wide variety of addresses that will explore the environment in crisis, constitutional crises, trauma in literature and film, gender, etc. We warmly invite you to join us for the joyous event.

To register please click here.

Please note that there is no registration fee. However, your registration will not be approved unless you have paid this year’s AASR Membership fees. To pay membership fees, please visit www.a-asr.org and choose Join Us.

If you have any questions, concerns, or need assistance along the way, please email the General Secretary, Nathanael Homewood, at njh2@rice.edu or secretary@a-asr.org

Below is the conference schedule and panel information.

AASR-2022-Virtual-Conference-Schedule-Updated

AASR Virtual Meet-Up

Dear colleagues

I am writing today to remind you that we will host a virtual meeting on February 16, 2022, at 4 pm GMT. This is mostly a virtual meet-up. We have spent years now unable to have an in-person conference and have so dearly missed seeing and chatting with colleagues and hope that this provides at least one avenue for connection. While I will share a few updates and news items, such items will also be shared via email. The link can be found here.

If you have any difficulties, questions, or concerns, please reach out to Nathanael Homewood at secretary@a-asr.org, and we hope to see you on February 16!

Sincerely,
Nathanael Homewood
AASR General Secretary

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

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