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  4. Religion and Spirituality in the Constitution of Public and Private Lives: A Postcolonial Perspective

Religion and Spirituality in the Constitution of Public and Private Lives: A Postcolonial Perspective

Collaboration with the Faculty of Humanities, University of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa.

Started January 2006. Coordinated by Duncan Brown, formerly University of KwaZulu Natal, since December 2008 Dean of Arts, University of Western Cape.

This project is concerned with the place and role of religion and spirituality in modes of individual identification and belief, as well as in the structure and functioning of the public spheres of governance and policy-making, in postcolonial societies, taking as its initial focus South Africa. It engages seriously, in both its areas of investigation and its consideration of new methodologies, with the challenge of accounting for the range and power of religious/spiritual discourses which run through individual and communal identification in such societies, while subjecting such discourses to analysis and argument. David Richards, former Director of the Centre, had a significant role in initiating this project.