The Centre for the Study of World Christianity is delighted to announce the appointment of Dr Emma Wild-Wood as our new Senior Lecturer in African Christianity and African Indigenous Religions, with effect from 1 January 2018.

Emma comes to us from Cambridge, where she has been the Director of the Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide and more recently has filled the post of Lecturer in World Christianities in the University’s Faculty of Divinity while the current post-holder has been on a two-year research leave. She also taught in DR Congo and in Uganda for a number of years. Emma did her PhD in the Centre here in Edinburgh under Dr Jack Thompson, so she is returning to familiar territory.

Her research interests focus on religious encounter in Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly Christian conversion and the growth of mission-initiated denominations during the colonial era. Her PhD thesis and first monograph examined the impact of migration on Christian identity in the Democratic Republic of Congo. She is presently working on a critical biography of the remarkable Ugandan Anglican missionary to north-east Congo, Apolo Kivebulaya.  Emma is married to Peter, a Church of Scotland minister who is currently Director of Mission for Ely Diocese, and they have three children.  We all eagerly look forward to welcoming Emma to the Centre in January.