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 from the Edinburgh University Divinity School.
Research Overview
Religion, conflict and peace; religion and politics; religion and peacebuilding; interreligious relations; religion and health; African diaspora; indigenous religion, culture, and thought; Nigeria; Africa; and the Global South.
Research Interests
My primary area of interest is the interaction between religion and conflict, peace, and politics. My research has focused on Nigeria, but I am interested in the broader Global South, especially the former African and Asian colonies. With various approaches, I have studied religion and peacebuilding, religion and separatism, the determinants of peaceful interreligious relations, and the concept of interreligious peace.
I have written about migration-driven changes in the religious lives of Nigerian Christians in Britain. Over the next few years, I shall study other aspects of the religious and political attitudes of first-generation African immigrants in the UK and their interactions with coreligionists in their countries of origin.
I am 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.
My previous research about religious responses to diseases and the interreligious cooperation and state-society partnerships driven by the COVID-19 pandemic has also deepened my interest in the link between religion and health.
Current Research
In addition to writing a monograph on Christian-Muslim relations and religious peacebuilding in Nigeria, I am currently examining how Nigerian partitionists and unionists use religious claims to legitimise and delegitimise the Nigerian state.
Current Teaching
Michaelmas Term (2024-2025)
POLI.100: Politics in the Modern World (Weekly Seminars)
PPR.290: Research Methods in Politics (Qualitative Methods Seminars)
PPR.365: State and Religion (Week 5 Lecture and Seminars on Religion and Politics in Africa)
Lent Term (2024-2025)
POLI.100: Politics in the Modern World (Weekly Seminars)
PPR.492d: Religion and Conflict (Distance Learning)
PPR.261: Exploring Global Religions (With Dr Alyaa Ebbiary)