Rashida Adum-Atta

Rashida Alhassan Adum-Atta is a PhD researcher in the Madina Project which is part of the research programme Religious Matters in an Entangled World, lead by Prof. Birgit Meyer at Utrecht University. The focus of her research in this project is Food as Entry Point to the Material Study of Religion in Plural Settings. She investigates how food acts as a matter for inclusion and exclusion in everyday social relations and the implications for coexistence. Her focus is on food exchange among Muslims and Christians and to a lesser extent, practitioners of African Traditional Religion, in Madina Zongo; a diverse neighborhood in Accra, the capital of Ghana.

Rashida obtained a BA (2011) in Sociology and The Study of Religions and an MPhil (2015) in The Study of Religions, both from the University of Ghana, Legon.

Her long essay for her bachelors’ degree was on the Phenomenon of Yaaye in the Tamale Muslim Community. The work sought to find out the prescribed dress code in Islam and to ascertain if Yaaye was rooted in Islam or was just a cultural phenomenon. For her MPhil, she researched the Social Challenges Facing Muslim Converts in the Ghanaian Community. This work sought to examine the reasons why Muslims who willingly convert to other faiths are faced with different social challenges from their families and friends within the Muslim community thereby infringing on their religious freedom in a secular state.