Damaris Parsitau | |
---|---|
Born | 1968 Kajiado County |
Nationality | Kenyan |
Other names | Seleina |
Occupation | Senior Lecturer |
Known for | Research on Women, Religion, Girls Education |
Academic background | |
Education | Egerton University, University of Nairobi, Kenyatta University |
Alma mater | Harvard Divinity School |
Academic work | |
Discipline | Religion and Philosophy |
Sub-discipline | Women Studies and Religion |
Institutions | Nagel Institute |
Notable works | Let Maasai Girls Learn |
Damaris Seleina Parsitau is a scholar of religion,gender equality advocate,and feminist. She has published extensively on issues of religion,gender and society with a focus on Pentecostal Christianity. She is the first African Woman President of the African Association for the Study of Religion and its Diaspora (AASR) and the first African Woman Director of the Nagel Institute for the Study of World Christianity at Calvin University,in Grand Rapids,Michigan. She is also part of the community of social justice scholars and practitioners at the Desmond Tutu Centre for Religion and Social Justice.
Parsitau was born in Olosho Oibor village,Kajiado in 1968. She attended Olosho Oibor Primary School,Ole Tipis and Kipsigis Girls High School. [1]
She obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree from Egerton University in Kenya in 1992 and was employed at the same university as a graduate assistant/tutorial fellow. As part of the staff development programme,Parsitau qualified for a scholarship and obtained a master's degree from the University of Nairobi in 2000. In 2014,she earned a Ph.D. from Kenyatta University. [2] Her doctoral thesis,titled "The civic and public roles of neo-Pentecostal churches in Kenya (1970- 2010)",explored the churches' role in Kenya's civic and public spheres. [3] Parsitau was a senior lecturer (2015 - 2021) at the Department of Philosophy,History and Religious Studies at Egerton University,where she taught Religion and Development,Women Studies and Religion and Gender courses. She was also the Director of the Institute of Women,Gender,and Development Studies at Egerton University from 2012 until 2019. [2]
Parsitau was a 2017 Echidna Global Scholar at The Brookings Institution, Centre for Universal Education,Washington,D.C.,where she researched on global issues in girls' education. She was a visiting Associate Professor and Research Associate (2018 - 2019) at the Women Studies and African Religion Programme (WSRP),Harvard Divinity School,where she taught graduate students and undertook research for a book project.
Parsitau was a visiting research fellow at Wolfson College,University of Cambridge (2007 - 2008),Edinburgh University,Scotland (2006) and Post-graduate Research Associate (2016 - 2019),University of South Africa - UNISA. She also received training on policy writing,communication and implementation,evidenced based research,project management and a three year long leadership development training programme. [2]
In 2021,she was appointed as an extraordinary professor [4] at both the Desmond Tutu Centre for Religion and Social Justice,University of Western Cape,and University of South Africa.
Parsitau was the Country Director at the British Institute in East Africa between 2022 and 2023. [5] She was appointed as the director of the Nagel Institute an educational research institute within Calvin University,where she works to date. [6]
Parsitau serves on the editorial board of several journals. [7] She is an editorial advisory board member of the African Journal of Gender and Religion University of Western Cape in South Africa 2018,T&T Clark Studies in Social Ethics,Ethnography and Theologies,Bloomsbury the Journal of Religion,Taylor and Francis and Journal of Modern African Studies,University of Cambridge Press 2017.
She is a board member of the World Bicycle Relief and Child and Maternal Health Africa/Canada. Parsitau has moderated panels related to girls education and presented public lectures in international forums. She is also a subject matter expert on the Women's Work,Entrepreneurship and Skilling Project in Kenya. [8]
With over 25 years of experience in research in different universities and policy institutions in Africa and beyond,Parsitau has conducted research projects on the effects of education on gender equality as well as the relationship between religion and human rights. [9] She has published over 70 book chapters and peer-reviewed journal articles. Her research interests includes Grounded Theologies and African Realities and Religion,Gender and Sexuality in Africa. [10]
Her more recent research focuses on the intersections between religion,gender and sexuality in Africa with a special focus on women's bodies,sexual and gender-based violence,masculinities and patriarchal imaginaries in African Pentecostal Churches.
As an extraordinary professor at the Desmond Tutu Centre for Religion and Social Justice that facilitates transdisciplinary research and community engagement on the critical intersections between religion and social justice, [10] her research interests align with the centre's thematic focus area of Religion and Gender.
Her research at the Brookings Institution on girls’education in Maasailand, [11] outlines promising approaches on working with Maasai leadership to advance the educational opportunities of Maasai girls [12] It has also been instrumental in establishing programmes and policies that promote gender equality and educational access in marginalized groups.
At the Women's Studies in Religion Program at Harvard Divinity School,she conducted a research project titled 'The Kingdom of Holy Women:Pentecostalism,Sex and Women's Bodies in An African Church. [13]
Parsitau has published over 30 opinion pieces,briefs and policy blogs,in both digital and print media. She is also a columnist for The Elephant,where she has written articles on Gender,Church and politics.
Her articles that examine the intersections between religion,women's bodies and sexualities' and also on sociology of religion,gender and feminist studies,anthropology,politics and media,have been published in regional and international journals. Her article on titled "Arise,Oh Ye Daughters of Faith",Women Pentecostalism and Public Culture in Kenya highlights how women have assumed leadership positions in Pentecostal and charismatic movements in Kenya. unlike in Kenyan public life. [14]
Parsitau is actively involved in promoting equitable development for girls,women,and other vulnerable communities in Kenya. Having overcome structural barriers to obtain an education,she advocates for girls living in Maasailand in Kenya's arid and semi-arid regions who face many challenges in accessing education. She is the founder and CEO of two nonprofit organizations Let Maasai Girls Learn an initiative [15] that seeks to rally local,regional and global action for girls education throughout Massailand in Kenya.
She advocates for girls education in the Maasai community where many girls are not enrolling in school nor completing school due to childhood marriage,teenage pregnancy,preference for boys and lack of role models. High illiteracy levels propelled her to ensure Maasai boys and especially girls obtained education,as they were affected by sexual harassment,physical and gender-based violence and child neglect. Her efforts have had a positive impact on the community,enabling young Maasai females to follow their academic aspirations. [1]
Her research on girls education showed,well-meaning governmental and non-governmental interventions intended to help Maasai girls have alienated elders and overlooked the value of community-led solutions grounded in existing Maasai social and cultural capital.
Parsitau advocates for the development of a just society that ensures women and girls have equal opportunities and has focused on inspiring social and gendered change in her Maasai community and beyond.
As a community mobilizer,she also founded Kenya Women Rising and Youth and Transformational Leadership Development Programmes,which are leadership and mentorship incubation programs that invest in women and youth. [1]
Policy Briefs,blogs,editorial,and opinion pieces
The Maasai are a Nilotic ethnic group inhabiting northern,central and southern Kenya and northern Tanzania,near the African Great Lakes region. The Maasai speak the Maa language,a member of the Nilotic language family that is related to the Dinka,Kalenjin and Nuer languages. Except for some elders living in rural areas,most Maasai people speak the official languages of Kenya and Tanzania,Swahili and English.
Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a Protestant Charismatic Christian movement that emphasizes direct personal experience of God through baptism with the Holy Spirit. The term Pentecostal is derived from Pentecost,an event that commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and other followers of Jesus Christ while they were in Jerusalem celebrating the Feast of Weeks,as described in the Acts of the Apostles.
Egerton University is a public university in Kenya. It is the oldest institution of higher education in Kenya.
Religion of Black Americans refers to the religious and spiritual practices of African Americans. Historians generally agree that the religious life of Black Americans "forms the foundation of their community life". Before 1775 there was scattered evidence of organized religion among Black people in the Thirteen Colonies. The Methodist and Baptist churches became much more active in the 1780s. Their growth was quite rapid for the next 150 years,until their membership included the majority of Black Americans.
Stephen John Hunt is a British professor of sociology at the University of the West of England. Prior to his appointment at the University of West England in 2001,Hunt had taught at the Sociology Department at the University of Reading for thirteen years,as well as in the Religious Studies Department at the University of Surrey,Roehampton.
Christian population growth is the population growth of the global Christian community. According to a 2011 Pew Research Center survey,there were more than 2.2 billion Christians around the world in 2010,more than three times as many as the 600 million recorded in 1910. However,this rate of growth is slower than the overall population growth over the same time period. In 2020,Pew estimated the number of Christians worldwide to be around 2.38 billion. According to various scholars and sources,high birth rates and conversions in the Global South were cited as the reasons for the Christian population growth. In 2023,it was reported:"There will be over 2.6 billion Christians worldwide by the middle of 2023 and around 3.3 billion by 2050,according to a report published in early January by the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary."
Allan Anderson is a British theologian and the Professor of Mission and Pentecostal Studies at the University of Birmingham. He is frequently cited as one of the foremost scholars on Global Pentecostalism.
The doctrines and practices of modern Pentecostalism placed a high priority on international evangelization. The movement spread to Africa soon after the 1906 Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles.
Wolfgang Vondey is a German-born Pentecostal theologian who currently serves as Professor of Christian Theology and Pentecostal Studies at the University of Birmingham,United Kingdom,where he also directs the Centre for Pentecostal and Charismatic Studies.
The decline of Christianity in the Western world is the decreasing Christian affiliation in the Western world. While most countries in the Western world were historically almost exclusively Christian,the post-World War II era has seen developed countries with modern,secular educational facilities shifting towards post-Christian,secular,globalized,multicultural and multifaith societies.
The Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians is a pan-African ecumenical organization that supports scholarly research of African women theologians. The Circle mentors the next generation of African women theologians throughout their academic careers in order to counter the dearth of academic theological literature by African women. The Circle has chapters in more than a dozen countries across the African continent,as well as diaspora chapters in Europe and North America.
Olufunke Adeboye is a Nigerian professor of Social History at the Department of History and Strategic Studies of the University of Lagos,Nigeria,where she was a former Dean of the Faculty of Arts. Adeboye's research interests include gender in Africa,pre-colonial and colonial Nigerian history,nineteenth and twentieth century Yoruba society,African historiography,and Pentecostalism in West Africa. In 2013,she won the Gerti Hesseling Prize awarded by AEGIS for the best journal article published in a European African Studies journal by an African scholar.
Esther Moraa Mombo is a Kenyan Anglican female theologian and a full professor of theology in the school of theology at St. Paul's University,Limuru. She researches on church history with a focus on mission history,interfaith relations and theology,gender studies with a focus on African women's theologies,sexuality and HIV/AIDS. She is the founder of the Tamar campaign in Kenya which acknowledges gender-based violence in society and empower churches to address it. She is the founder member of Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians St. Paul’s chapter in Kenya.
Philomena Njeri Mwaura is a Kenyan Female theologian and an Associate Professor Religious Studies at Kenyatta University,Kenya. She has published widely in the areas of African Christianity- History and Theology and New Religious Movements.
Sarojini Nadar is a South African theologian and biblical scholar who is the Desmond Tutu Research Chair in Religion and Social Justice at the University of the Western Cape.
Fulata Lusungu Mbano Moyo is a Malawian systematic and feminist theologian who is an advocate for gender justice. Moyo has written over twenty-eight journal articles.
Mary Getui is a Kenyan theologian and professor of religious studies at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa. She is a founding member of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians. In 2009,Getui was named a Moran of the Burning Spear. She was appointed as chair of the National Aids Control Council of Kenya that same year.
Elizabeth A. McAlister is a scholar of Religious Studies,and African-American studies,and feminist,gender,and sexuality Studies at Wesleyan University in Middletown,Connecticut. She is known for her contributions in Afro-Caribbean religions,Haitian Vodou,Pentecostalism,race theory,transnational migration,Caribbean musicology,and evangelical spiritual warfare.
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