Abimbola Adelakun

*This position is supported by the Tandean Rustandy Chair in Global Christianity Fund

Abimbola A. Adelakun is an Associate Professor of Global Christianity. She researches Pentecostalism, performance, religion and spirituality, as they intersect with digital culture. She teaches courses in spirituality and performance, dramatic literature, and modern Nigerian culture. She is the author of Powerful Devices: The Politics and Praxis of Spiritual Warfare (Rutgers 2022). She is also the author of Performing Power in Nigeria: Politics, Identity, and Pentecostalism (Cambridge 2021) which won the 2022 Pneuma Book of the Year Award. She has also been published in The Drama Review and Journal of World Christianity. Since 2008, Abimbola has been writing a column for PUNCH Newspapers, Nigeria’s most widely-read newspaper. Her popular column critically interrogates modern Nigerian political and social culture. She obtained a PhD from the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of Texas at Austin, along with a doctoral portfolio and master’s degree from African and African Diaspora Studies at the University of Texas at Austin.  

Abimbola is currently a co-series editor with Bloombury’s Black Literary and Cultural Expressions (BLACE) as well as a research associate with the John Templeton Foundation Religion Trust, working on The Global Megachurch Project. Her research has been supported by the John Templeton Religion Trust, the AAUW, The American Academy of Religion, The Henry Luce Foundation, Frances and Sanger Mossiker Research in the Humanities, and the John Warfield Center.