Britta Frede
Britta Frede is specialized in Islamic studies focusing on the western Saharan region, especially Mauritania. She is interested in processes of religious and social transformation, therefore having worked about the history of Sufism in 19th and 20th century West Africa and contemporary Muslim education. She has also published a history of a 20th century Tijani revival movement inspired by the Senegalese Sufi sheikh Ibrahim Niasse (Die Erneuerung der Tiǧānīya in Mauretanien. Popularisierung religiöser Ideen in der Kolonialzeit. ZMO Studien; 31. Berlin: Schwarz-Verlag, 2014) shedding light on the interaction of tribal and Sufi brotherhood identity. Her book won the Annemarie Schimmel Prize 2015 (DMLG). Her recent study deals with contemporary Muslim women scholars, their students and their transforming institutions of Islamic education in African urban settings. This time she does not focus on Mauritania only, but even conducted some comparative studies in Mombasa (Kenya) and Cape Town (South Africa).
She has worked as a research fellow at ZMO (Berlin), at Bayreuth University and is recently a DIN-Postdoctoral Fellow at the Berlin Graduate School Muslim Cultures and Societies (Free University Berlin). Further, she remains an associated research fellow to the ZMO Berlin where she conducts a collaborative project funded by Volkswagen Foundation with Halkano Abdi Wario (Egerton University, Kenya) on transmission of Islamic knowledge and media in Africa. In January 2015 she joined the editorial board of Islamic Africa as book review editor.
Britta Frede is a self-financed visitor. She will be at the ASCL until the end of October 2016.
Fellowship year:
2016