Religion and Society
Our Team
Chief Investigator: Professor Cristina Rocha (opens in a new window), Western Sydney University
Professor Cristina Rocha is Chief Investigator on ‘The African Diaspora and Pentecostalism in Australia’ project. She is a Professor of anthropology and the Director of the Religion and Society Research Cluster, Western Sydney University, Australia. She was a fellow at the Paris Institute for Advanced Study (opens in a new window) (2021-2022) and the President of the Australian Association for the Study of Religion (2018-2019). She co-edits the Journal of Global Buddhism (opens in a new window) and the Religion in the Americas Brill (opens in a new window) series. Cristina has held visiting research positions at Utrecht University (NL), Kings College and Queen Mary College (UK), CUNY Graduate Centre (US), and the Max Planck Institute for Religious and Ethnic Diversity (Germany). Her research focuses on the intersections of globalisation, mobility and religion.
Her publications include: Australian Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements: Arguments from the Margins (opens in a new window) (C. Rocha, M. Hutchinson, K. Openshaw, eds., Brill, 2020), John of God: The Globalization of Brazilian Faith Healing (opens in a new window) (Oxford University Press, 2017), 2019 Geertz Prize, Society for the Anthropology of Religion, AAA; The Diaspora of Brazilian Religions (opens in a new window) (M. Vásquez, eds., Brill, 2013); Buddhism in Australia (opens in a new window) (M. Barker, eds., Routledge, 2010); Zen in Brazil: The Quest for Cosmopolitan Modernity (opens in a new window) (Hawaii University Press, 2006).
For more details, see:
Chief Investigator: Associate Professor Richard Vokes (opens in a new window), The University of Western Australia
Associate Prof Richard Vokes is Chief Investigator on ‘The African Diaspora and Pentecostalism in Australia’ project. He has been working on African expressions of Christianity for over 20 years, beginning with his doctoral research in anthropology at Oxford University, which formed the basis of his award-winning book Ghosts of Kanungu: Fertility, Secrecy and Exchange in the Great Lakes of East Africa (James Currey, 2009). He also works extensively with African-Australians. His current research is focused especially upon African young people’s mediated experiences of religiosity in the contexts of the Covid-19 pandemic, and of #Black Lives Matter.
He is leading the nationwide ‘Africa in Australia’ research and engagement platform, which is examining global African heritage in Australia, and is developing new models for reconnecting that heritage with sources communities both in Australia, and around the world. For more information, please see his profile pages at UWA and Oxford University:
Researcher: Dr Kathleen Openshaw, Western Sydney University
Dr Kathleen Openshaw is a lecturer in the School of Social Sciences at Western Sydney University where she also received her PhD. Kathleen’s main research interests are local migrant lived religious expressions and material religion. Her PhD research was an ethnography of the Brazilian megachurch The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG) in Australia. Kathleen is currently a member of the research team for an Australian Research Council Discovery Project, “The African Diaspora and Pentecostalism in Australia”. She is also co-editor (with C. Rocha and M. Hutchinson) of Australian Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements: Arguments from the Margins (opens in a new window). Leiden: Brill (2020).
Peter Deng
Peter Deng is the Founder and Managing Director of Africa World Books (AWB) and the Chairperson of Africa World Books Community Education Inc. (AWBCE). Based in Perth, Western Australia, AWB was set up in 2013 as a publishing house for authors of African heritage – wherever they may be. It has since published more than 300 books, including fiction and folktales, history and ethnography, biographies, geography textbooks, and African language learning materials. At the heart of its mission is a desire to educate younger generations of Africans – be they living in Africa, or among Africa's global Diasporas, about African literature, history, culture, and society. AWB is connecting readers throughout the world with these subjects. Peter is working with Richard Vokes in his research among South Sudanese communities in WA and their transnational networks. For more information and to make contact, please visit AWB's website:
