Prof. Dr Benjamin Kirby takes up the junior professorship for the Study of Religion with a focus on global entanglements at the University of Bayreuth.
In 2017, Prof. Dr Benjamin Kirby completed his PhD in the Study of Religion at the University of Leeds. Previously, he had obtained a Bachelor in Theology from Pembroke College at University of Oxford and a Master in Religion and Public Life at the Univerity of Leeds. After completing his PhD, he worked as a British Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellowat the University of Leeds. His research project was entitled "The politics of religious infrastructure: Christian and Muslim urban worlds in Africa". At Leeds, he was also closely involved in the work of the Centre for Religion and Public Life and the Centre for African Studies. Kirby is fluent in Kiswahili and frequently conducts research in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
Kirby's research explores questions of religious politics and urban mutuality from the perspective of rapidly growing cities in Africa, as well as urban sites beyond the continent that they are connected with. He works at the intersection of religious studies, African studies and urban studies. At the University of Bayreuth he focuses on how religion is implicated in popular forms of economic activity, political struggle, and urban development, particularly with a view to addressing questions about shared global futures.
E-mail: benjamin.kirby@uni-bayreuth.de
