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Dr. Genevieve Nrenzah

Position: 
Senior Research Fellow
Email: 
gnrenzah@ug.edu.gh
Section: 
Religions and Philosophy
Profile

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Dr. Genevieve Nrenzah is a Senior Research Fellow in the Religion and Philosophy Section of the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana. Her research and teaching interests include Africa's diverse indigenous religious beliefs and ceremonies and their extensions in the African Diasporas, Abrahamic religions, Religion and Economics, Sound/Music in indigenous religions and Christianity, Sacred Spaces, Sexuality, Religion, and Human rights, neo-feminism in Ghana, and Religion, Oil, and the Beach Front.

Nrenzah is an editorial member of the Contemporary Journal of African Studies, Institute of African Studies (CJAS June 2018-Date), and Editorial review board member- Of the Journal of Black Women and Religious Cultures-- University of Minnesota Press. July 2021 to 2024 and Editorial Advisory Board member, Journal of Religion in Africa, --Brill. January 2022 - December 2024. She has professional affiliations with African Studies Association of Africa, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Missionswissenschaft, American Academy of Religions, Golden key International Honour Society and International Association for the History of Religions.

 

Education
  • PhD in Religious Studies, Bayreuth International Graduate School of African Studies, University of Bayreuth, Germany, 2015.
  • Masters in Religious Studies, Florida International University, Miami, USA, 2008.
  • Graduate Certificate in Women Studies, Florida International University, Miami, USA, 2008.
  • Bachelors in Political Science and Religion, University of Ghana, Legon, 2005.
  • Diploma in the Study of Religions from University of Ghana, Legon, 2002.
  • Certificate in Education from University of Cape Coast, Ghana. 1995.
Research Areas
  • Africa/African Diaspora Religions
  • Pentecostalism in Africa
  • Neo Feminism in Ghana
  • Music/Sound in Religious Traditions
  • Religion, Sexuality and Human Rights in Africa.

Current Research Activities

  • Human Rights Abuses in Ghanaian Pentecostalism funded by Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. 2021-2023.
  • A Social Study of Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis and Atuabo, funded by the Oil and Gas Company Ghana. 2021-2023.
  • Other Universals:Theorizing from Post-colonial Locations on Politics and Aesthetics, funded by Mellon Foundation. (2019-2023)
Publications
  • Nrenzah, Genevieve (2024). The grammar of sound (Music) in Ghana's Indigenous religions and Pentecostal traditions in The Grammar of the Spirit World.  LIT's series Studies on Religion and Culture. Ed. Hermen Kroesbergen, Johanneke Kroesbergen, Philipp Öhlmann

  • Nrenzah, Genevieve.(2023) Invalidating Indigenous Religious Traditions via Christianity Popular Ghanaian Gospel Songs Music Pentecost Journal of Theology and Mission (PJTM) Vol. 4, 41-60.

  • Nrenzah, Genevieve (2023). Interrogating the Other: Belief in Witchcraft among the Akan Nzema People in Pentecostal-Charismatic Africa.in The Sage Handbook of Global Social Theory, edited by Gurminder K Bhambra, Lucy Mayblin, Kathryn Medien, Mara Viveros Vigoya. 2023, 335-346.

  • Nrenzah, Genevieve (2023). Religion, Aesthetics, the Politics of Hair in Contemporary Ghana, American Religion Journal Volume 3, Issue 2.

  • Nrenzah, G.,& Okyerefo M. P. K. ((2021).  Religion and Commodification: The Ghanaian Churches' Covid-19 Economy, Ghana Journal of Religion and Theology, 11 (1), 133-155.  DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/gjrt.v11i1.9

  • Nrenzah, Genevieve. (2021) Doing Feminism on the Street: Culture, Media Perspectives, and Neo-Gender Groups in Ghana, Journal of Black Women and Religious Cultures, vol.2, no.2 Published by University of Minnesota Press. https://doi.org/10.53407/bwrc2.2.2021.100.09).  
  • Nrenzah, G. (2022, June 18).Review of the book The Politics of Religious Sound: Conflict and the Negotiation of Religious Diversity in Ghana by Arthur,  Justice.  A. The Contemporary Journal of African Studies (CJAS) 109-110.(Vol. 86) LIT Verlag Münster(2018).
  • Nrenzah, G. (31 Aug 2020). Book review-- Pentecostal Republic: Religion and the Struggle for State Power in Nigeria by Ebenezer Obadare, Canadian Journal of African Studies. ZED Publisher 2018. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00083968.2020.1775837.
  • Nrenzah, G.  (2019). Sacralising Natural Spaces: Competitive Performances In Contemporary Ghanaian Religiosity, Ghana Journal of Religion and Theology Vol 9 No 1. 65-81 https://journals.ug.edu.gh/index.php/gjrt/index
  • Nrenzah, G.  (2019). Polished Violence: Changing Notions about the Spirituality of the Todↄlε (Vagina) in Popular Nzema Indigenous Religious Philosophy. Nyangweso M. and Olupona J.K. (eds), The Role of Religion, Gender-Based Violence, Immigration and Human Rights, Routledge:London. 195-206.
  • Nrenzah, G. (2019). Tapping the Powers of the Gods: Rituals, Sacrifices and Indigenous Religious Adherents” Interkulturelle Theologie / ZMiss.5-15.
  • Nrenzah, G. (2019, 30th April). [ Review of a book- Funeral Culture: AIDS, Work, and Culture Change in an African Kingdom], Reading Religion, A Bi-Weekly Newsletter Publication of American Academy of Religion.  www.readingreligion.org .
  • Nrenzah, G. (6 April 2018). Book review -- Funeral Culture: AIDS, Work, and Culture Change in an African Kingdom by Casey Golomski.  Indiana University Press. https://readingreligion.org/books/funeral-culture 54(2), pp. 364–365.
  • Nrenzah G. (2017, October 6). [ Review of the book Gestures and Power: Religion, Nationalism, and Everyday Performance in Congo]. Reading Religion:  A Bi-Weekly Newsletter Publication of American Academy of Religion.
  • Nrenzah, G.  (2017, April 27). [Review of the book West Africa’s Women of God: Alinesitoue and the Diola Prophetic Tradition]. Reading Religion, A  Bi-Weekly Newsletter Publication of American Academy of Religion. 2(7).
  • Nrenzah, G. (2015). Modernizing Indigenous Priesthood and Revitalizing Old Shrines: Current Developments on Ghana’s Religious Landscape. Bayreuth, Germany: University of Bayreuth Publishing.
  • Nrenzah, G. (2015). Gender Dimensions of Wealth and Health in Ghanaian Indigenous Religious Thinking: Narratives of Female Clients of Pensam Shrine. In A. Heuser (Ed), Pastures of Plenty: Tracing Religio-Scapes of Prosperity Gospel in Africa and Beyond (pp.203-216). Frankfurt am Main, Germany: Peter Lang, Berlin.
  • Nrenzah, G. (2013). Gatekeepers, Priests and Shrines – “accessing” an African Indigenous Religious Research Site.” In C.Hoffman, A. Heuser, and T. Walther (Eds), Empirische Zugange Zur Religionsforschung (pp. 267-280). Rosch-Buch, Schesslitz.
  • Nrenzah, G. (2009). Indigenous Religious Belief and Practice in Ghanaian Pentecostalism: The Mame Wata Healing Churches of Half Assini.”Making Waves, Journal for Women's Studies at Florida International University,  (7), (26-32).

Forthcoming

  • Nrenzah, Genevieve. (Book)“Suffering in God’s Kingdom on Earth: Ritual, Discourse, and Abuse in Ghanaian Pentecostalism”

    Nrenzah, Genevieve. The Ghana Pentecostal-Charismatic Churches, Women and the Challenge of Masculinity in The Palgrave Handbook of Men and Masculinities in Africa. Eds. Ezra Chitando.

    Nrenzah, Genevieve. “Religious Infrastructure” presented my draft titled Aesthetics, Capitalism and Religious Infrastructure in Urban and Rural Ghana—the Religion State and Society Journal.

  • Nrenzah, Genevieve. "Asantehene: The Making of Asanteman" to the upcoming edition of the Routledge Encyclopedia of African Studies, edited by Dr. Emmanuel Mbah and Dr. Toyin Falola. The entries are scheduled for publication in the forthcoming Online encyclopedia, Routledge Encyclopedia of African Studies. Taylor & Francis'. The ISBN for the Encyclopedia is 978-1-138-08104-8.
  • Nrenzah, Genevieve "Performances, Monetization and Power on Ghana’s Indigenous Religious field", Accepted for publication in the Journal of Contemporary African Studies. Routledge.
  • Nrenzah, Genevieve. “Competing with the Pentecostals: Building on Religious Diversity and Constructing Neo-Indigenous Religions in Ghana, Accepted for a Special Journal Issue in the Legon Journal of Humanities.
Scholarly Presentations/Seminars and Conferences Attended
  • March 2024, World Christianity Conference, Held at the university of Ghana, March 10-15 2024.

    November 2023. The Sanneh Institute Scholars Network Conference. Religion, Human (in) Security, and the Environment: The Case of Illegal Mining in Western Ghana. 19-23 November. University of Ghana. 

    September 2023. DVRW conference, Under Construction-Religion. Researching Violence in Religious Communities and Practice: Africa and Beyond. Bayreuth September 25-29, 2023.

    July 2023. Materiality and Death conference. Changing Notions of Funerals: Women and Professional Mourners in Ghanaian Culture—14-17 July, University of Rostock.

    January 2022. Lecture on Personhood, Health, and Death in African Religion, University of Rostock Hospital, January 2022.

    May 2022. Workshop on Decentring America Religions Religion, Indiana University Gateway, Berlin, Germany 5-7 May. I presented on Aesthetics and the Politics of Hair in Contemporary Ghana.

    July 2022. Seminar presentation at Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana. I presented on the topic ‘Speaking of Masculinity: The Powerful “Godmen” and the “others” in Ghana’s Pentecostalism’ on July 7, 2022.

    September 2022. Workshop on Concepts from the Global South: New Directions for the Study of Religions in Africa. I presented on Methodology: Researching Abuse in the Ghanaian Pentecostal Landscape. University of Rostock

    September 2022. Conference on Ritual. 7-9, 2022, at the university of Rostock

    September 2021, Zoom Workshop sponsored by DFG through Point Sud. The Grammar of the Spirit World in Pentecostalized Africa 2-6 September 2021. I participated in the workshop and presented a paper on “The grammar of sound (Music) in Ghana's Indigenous religions and Pentecostal traditions." Working on the paper for publication.

    October 2021. DAAD & MIASA Round Table on Postdoctoral Funding with Humboldt Foundation.  Presented at the roundtable discussion on international education in Germany.

    October 2021. Virtual workshop on “Religious Infrastructure” presented my draft titled Aesthetics, Capitalism and Religious Infrastructure in Urban and Rural Ghana. October 21 – 22, 2021,

    October 2021. 10th Virtual Bonn Humboldt Award Winners' Forum "Beethoven's 'Empire of the Mind': Artistic 'Effigies of the Ideal' and the Cultural Politics of Resistance Bonn, I presented on my project titled, Examining Abuses in Ghanaian Pentecostal-Charismatic Churches. 20.–23. Oktober 2021.

    November 2021. Other Universals. "The Minority Question: Formations and Futures," Aesthetic and Politics and Global Justice. Online.

    December 2021. Religion in Times of Transition: The Case of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Africa held at University of Bayreuth, Germany 17-18 December. I presented a paper on Religion and Commodification: The Ghanaian Churches' COVID-19 Economy.

  • March 2021, Workshop on “De-centering American Religion”. Virtual 5-7 2021. I presented on Sankofa: Reconstructing the African identity.
  • April 2021, Other Universals Consortium Workshop, April 19th and 20th. I presented on Aesthetics, Capitalism and Religious Infrastructure in Ghana.
  • September 2021, The Grammar of the Spirit World in Pentecostalized Africa 2-6 September 2021.I presented a paper on “The grammar of sound (Music) in Ghana's Indigenous religions and Pentecostal traditions."
  • October 2021, 10th Virtual Bonn Humboldt Award Winners' Forum "Beethoven's 'Empire of the Mind': Artistic 'Effigies of the Ideal' and the Cultural Politics of Resistance Bonn, 20.–23. October 2021, 1 presented on “My Right ends at the Church Gate’: Examining Sexual Violence of Women in the Neo-Prophetic Ministries within the Pentecostal/Charismatic Churches in Kumasi.
  • October 2021. Conference on Rituals, Emotions and Identities. Gender Roles and Gender Identity in early Christianity, the Greco-Roman World and contemporary Discourses.” 25-28th 2021 at the University of Rostock.
  • December 2021. Religion in Times of Transition: The Case of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Africa held at University of Bayreuth, Germany 17-18 December. I presented a paper on Religion and Commodification: The Ghanaian Churches' COVID-19 Economy.
  • October 2019 Modernity and the Production of (Ayene)Witchcraft Among Nzema’s: Contesting the Other was presented at the African Studies Association of Africa (ASAA) Third International Biennial Conference 2019 in Nairobi from 24-26 October 2019, at the United States International University-Africa.
  • November 2019 Witchcraft Economy Across Ghanaian Religious Traditions was presented at the RC22 Mid-Term Conference on Rethinking Religion in the Public Sphere in the 21st Century Global South. Held at the Cedi Complex, University of Ghana, Legon, from November14-18, 2019.
  • May 2019, Migration, Mobility and Forced Displacement, organized by Merian Advanced Institute of African Studies (MIASA), University of Ghana, Legon May 23-24 2019.
  • March 2019- ‘My Right ends at the Church Gate’: Examining Sexual Violence of Women in Ghanaian Pentecostal/charismatic churches. Princeton, USA.
  • December 2018 “Domination and Religious Resistance: An Ethno-Historical Account of Ghana’s Indigenous Religions” A paper presented at the All African Peoples Conference organized by Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana. December 5-7 2018.
  • November 2018- Doing Feminism on the Street: Contemporary Feminist Groups in Ghana. A paper presented at Alumni Conference "The Future of African Studies Scholars in Africa and Abroad" in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Nov 1-3 2018.

 

Teaching
  • African Popular Culture: Traditional Festivals and Funeral Ceremonies (UGRC)
  • Traditional Religions in Africa (Masters)