Prof Martha Frederiks: extraordinary professor in Religion Studies

Prof Martha Frederiks has been appointed as extraordinary professor from 1 January 2021 in the Department Religion Studies, Faculty of Theology and Religion. As an expert on inter-religious relations and West African Christianity she will serve in an advisory capacity for the department.

Martha Frederiks (1965) studied theology and Islamic studies at Utrecht University and at the Duncan Black MacDonald Institute in Hartford, CT.  From 1993-1999 she lived and worked in West Africa in the field of Christian Muslim Relations. Since 1999 she works at Utrecht University, where she obtained her Ph.D. (2003, cum laude) with a study about Christianity in The Gambia. From 2007-2014 she was associate professor of Missiology: World Christianity and Interreligious Dialogue. Since 2014 she is professor of the Study of World Christianity. During 2013-2019 she was head of the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies. Currently she serves as vice-dean of Education (undergraduate programs) at Utrecht University.

In her research, she focuses on both historical and more recent developments in Christianity in Africa. She was part of the European Norface research project Recognising Christianity. How African Immigrants redefine the European Religious Heritage (2008-2011).  Currently, she is involved in Christian Muslim Relations, a bibliographical history 1500-1900 (CMR1900) (2013-2022) and the Madina Project. With Dorottya Nagy, she published Religion, Migration, and Identity. Methodological and Theological Explorations (Leiden, 2016; Open Access: https://brill.com/view/title/33729), World Christianity. Methodological Considerations (Leiden, 2020; Open Access: https://brill.com/view/title/59063) and Critical Readings in the History of Christian Mission, 4 vols. (Leiden, 2021).