Dr Tanya van Wyk, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Systematic and Historical Theology, was recently invited to do a keynote lecture at the conference titled, ‘Between Cosmology and Community: Religion and Sustainable Development’, hosted by the Humboldt University. The conference took place in Berlin, from 2-6 July 2019. The aim of the conference was to contribute to the academic and policy discourse on religion and development from an interdisciplinary perspective. It was organized by Research Programme on Religious Communities and Sustainable Development at the Faculty of Theology of Humboldt University, Berlin.

The title of Dr Van Wyk’s keynote address was, ‘Examining South-African population policy at the intersection of the sustainable development goals of gender equality and climate action: Perspectives from ecofeminist theology’. It is part of a larger research project on gender, sustainable development and policy. Van Wyk presented her paper during the first plenary session on the theme of ‘Equality’ and Dr William Storrar, director of the Centre for Theological Inquiry situated at Princeton University, was her co-presenter.

An important part of the conference was the ‘Lecture Series on African Independent and Pentecostal Approaches to Theology and Development’. Prominent African church leaders presented keynote lectures during the evenings. There was also the opportunity for students from the Faculty of Theology and Religion at UP to present collaboration-studies and research findings with partners at the Faculty of Theology of Humboldt University, Berlin. Prof Cas Wepener, Head of Department of Practical Theology collaborated closely with the organizational committee of the conference. The conference was attended by about 180 people from different religious and development-related academic backgrounds, across Europe and Africa.