By prof Zoro Dube, head of Department of Religion Studies, UFS
The study of religion – its permutations, influence and intersectionality with other social sciences such as politics, economy and culture has been a fascinating topic of discussion that lured, baited me to the academic field of religion and theology. I come from a reformed tradition, specifically, a presbyterian minister. During my undergraduate studies at the University of Zimbabwe, I was exposed to the basic phenomenological and comparative study of Religion and, since then my interest in the field grew. I completed my master and PhD at the University of Oslo, Norway, 2007 and 2010 respectively. Here, I was exposed to various interdisciplinary perspectives and critical tools in the study of religion. My first academic career in 2010 was at the University of South Africa (UNISA) and later, in 2013 till 2020, I relocated to the University of Pretoria. From 2020 until recently 2024, I was teaching at VID specialised University, Stavanger, Norway. I was privileged to be exposed to best pedagogical and research practices. I like to be challenged and, to me, UFS presents a challenge of rebuilding the Department of Religion Studies – repositioning it as a site of academic excellence through research, collaboration and internationalisation.
Students who choose the field of religions studies disentangle the dogmatic confirm of theology by looking at religion through interdisciplinary lenses. In general, religion is an overarching canopy that, implicitly, influences our perception of reality – our ideas about self, society, gender, economy and politics. Studying religion is placing oneself as an interdisciplinary scholar with a sharp eye on various social formations, practices, values and beliefs. Besides being a scholar of religions studies, specialisation in religions studies offers critical skills to dialogue with other disciplines such as psychology, anthropology and sociology. Furthermore, our students are able to pursue or work as consultancy, peace and conflict resolution consultants, chaplains and/or teachers.
As we build and grow the department, we have two focus areas – which are research collaboration/internationalisation and growing our postgraduate student intake. Prof Dube started 1 August as head of the Department of Religion Studies at the University of the Free State.
| Provided: Prof Zoro Dube, Head of Department of Religion Studies, UFS
