Team > Prof. Dr. Eva Spies

Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences
Study of Religion

Academic

Eva Spies is professor for the Study of Religion with focus on Africa at the University of Bayreuth. She holds a PhD in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Mainz. She works on questions of religious plurality, social transformation and ethics and is particularly interested in contemporary forms of Christianity and South-South mission in Niger and Madagascar. In her current research, she engages with the interfaces of religion and projects of transformation and studies practices of religious engineering. With this term, she refers to attempts to shape and improve social and political worlds in which the transformative practices refer to religious resources. Together with Prof Paula Schrode (UBT) and colleagues from Niger, Prof Eva Spies is pursuing the research project “Religious engineering. The making of moralities, development and religion in Niger” within the Africa Multiple Cluster of Excellence at the University of Bayreuth.

Prof Eva Spies and Prof Eunice Kamaara from Moi University (Kenya) collaborate with Prof Ezra Chitando in the Humboldt Research Hub “Fighting pandemics with religion? How female religious actors in Africa (can) contribute to ensuring healthy lives”. The Hub is funded by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and was established at the University of Zimbabwe in 2021.

Prof Eva Spies is co-founder of the working group “Africa” within the German Association for the Study of Religion.

At the University of Bayreuth Prof Eva Spies is a.o.

• PI of the Bayreuth International Graduate School of African Studies (BIGSAS)
• Vice Dean of Research and PI in the Cluster of Excellence EXC 2052: