Rijk van Dijk is an anthropologist. He is an expert on Pentecostalism, globalization and transnationalism, migration, youth and healing. He has been appointed Professor of Religion in Contemporary Africa and its Diaspora at the ASCL, University of Leiden, as of 1 September 2017. He is also Head of the Graduate Programme African Studies.

Rijk van Dijk has done extensive research on the rise of Pentecostal movements in the urban areas of Malawi, Ghana and Botswana. He is the author of Young Malawian Puritans (Utrecht, ISOR Press, 1993) and has co-edited nine other books including The Quest for Fruition through Ngoma (Oxford, James Currey 2000) with Ria Reis and Marja Spierenburg, and Religion and AIDS Treatment in Africa. Saving Souls, Prolonging Lives (London, Ashgate Publ. 2014) with Hansjoerg Dilger, Marian Burchardt and Thera Rasing. His current research deals with religious, in particular Pentecostal, engagement with the domains of relationships and sexuality in Botswana. A recently published article, entitled ‘The Tent versus Lobola; marriage, monetary intimacies and the new face of responsibility in Botswana’ (2017) deals with insights gained from his ongoing research.
He is also the co-founder and former editor-in-chief of the journal African Diaspora. A Journal of Transnational Africa in a Global World (published by Brill).

Rijk van Dijk is a guest professor of the Centre of Excellence and the Ethnology-programme at the University of Konstanz, Germany. Here he is engaging with the study of Life Skills, Counselling and the Ethics of Responsibility by contributing his research on 'The Social Life of Responsibilization. Marriage as a "Life-Project" in Botswana'. 

Keywords: African diaspora, pentecostalism, religion and youth, religion, sexuality and relationships in Africa

Jan-Bart Gewald is a historian specialized in the social history of Africa. He is Professor of African History at Leiden University and former director of the African Studies Centre Leiden.

His research has ranged from the ramifications of genocide in Rwanda and Namibia, through to the socio-cultural parameters of trans-desert trade in Africa. In addition, he has conducted research on pan-Africanism in Ghana, spirit possession in the Republic of Niger, Dutch development cooperation, Africa in the context of globalisation, and social history in Eritrea. For the past 15 years his prime research focus has been on the socio-cultural history of central Africa. Of late he has become interested in the “Animal Turn” in history, and is seeking to apply this in his research and supervision. Furthermore he has a particular interest in archaeology, and has participated in archaeological research in southern Africa.

Jan-Bart Gewald has acquired research funding from a wide variety of sources and was awarded research funding by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) for research programmes within the social sciences and humanities that dealt with the role of technology and consumption in African societies.

On a personal note, Jan-Bart grew up in Africa and has lived in Botswana, Congo Kinshasa, Eritrea, Ghana, Namibia, Niger, South Africa, and Zimbabwe.

Keywords: African cultural and social history, relationship technology and society, Southern African history, Ghanaian history, African socio-political history, global and imperial history, history of anthropology, contemporary African developments, history of technology in Africa, genocide studies.

CV Jan-Bart Gewald (pdf)