Corey Williams

Corey Williams (PhD, Edinburgh) is an anthropologist of religion, with a primary focus on contemporary West Africa and Global Christianity. He is an expert on African religions, religion and migration, religion and public policy, and multiple religious belongings and identities.

For more than 12 years, Corey has conducted extensive field and archival research on interreligious encounters in Nigeria and Ghana. His first monograph, The Yoruba Spirit of Accommodation: Religious Encounter and the Politics of Belonging and Identity in Nigeria, is currently under review. At the moment, he is conducting research on migration and transnational Pentecostal networks between Nigeria and the USA. This project has been awarded with a Collaborative International Research Grant from the American Academy of Religion.

Currently, Corey is a University Lecturer at Leiden University. Since 2019, he has served as Chair of Religious Studies Programmes and Director of the Leiden University Centre for the Study of Religion (LUCSoR). As of 2018, he also became a Faculty Fellow at the Ife Institute for Advanced Studies, Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria. Prior to joining the Leiden faculty in 2015, he was a Visiting Professor of Religion at Pepperdine University and Lecturer in Religious Studies and World Christianity at The University of Edinburgh.

Recent Publications

“Multiple Religious Belonging and Identity in Contemporary Nigeria: Methodological Reflections for World Christianity”, in World Christianity: Methodological Considerations, eds. Martha Frederiks and Dorottya Nagy (Leiden: Brill, 2021), 225-250.

Fighting in God’s Name: Religion and Conflict in Local-Global Perspectives, co-edited with Olufunke Adeboye and Afe Adogame (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2020). KEY PUBLICATION

“Special Issue: Christianity and Multiple Identities”, Studies in World Christianity 25.1 (2019). Guest edited with Afe Adogame.

“Chrislam, Accommodation, and the Politics of Religious Bricolage in Contemporary Nigeria”, in Studies in World Christianity 25.1 (April 2019): 5-28. KEY PUBLICATION

“Religion and Sport in Multireligious Nigeria: The Case of Kaduna City Interfaith Football Club”, in Global Perspectives on Sports and Christianity, eds. Afe Adogame, Nick Watson and Andrew Parker (New York: Routledge, 2018), 114-128.