Dr Emmanuel Ossai
Lecturer in Religion and Politics in the Global SouthCareer Details
Before joining Lancaster, I was a postdoctoral research fellow at Manchester Metropolitan University and a lecturer in religion and society at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. I received my PhD in religion and peacebuilding from the University of Edinburgh.
Research Overview
religion; conflict; peace; politics; peacebuilding; colonialism; legitimacy; Nigeria; African security; African diaspora; indigenous religion, culture, and thought; the Global South.
Research Interests
My primary area of interest is the interaction between religion and politics, conflict, and peace. My research has focused on Nigeria, but I am interested in the broader Global South, especially the former African and Asian colonies. My studies on religion and peacebuilding, religion and separatism, the determinants of peaceful interreligious relations, the concept of interreligious peace, migration-driven religious changes, and religious responses to diseases have appeared in top-ranked peer-reviewed journals. I am also interested in the relationship between indigenous religion, Christianity and Islam in contemporary Africa, what has been described as the resurgence of indigenous culture in some largely Christianised former European colonies in Africa, and how indigenous ideas and practices may form strategies for addressing present-day challenges, as ubuntu did in post-apartheid South Africa and Gacaca in post-genocide Rwanda.
Current Research
I am completing a research monograph on Christian-Muslim relations and religious peacebuilding in Nigeria for Brill's Studies of Religion in Africa series, and a paper about religion and state legitimacy in Africa.