Devaka Premawardhana

Devaka Premawardhana is a Winship Distinguished Research Associate Professor of Religion at Emory University, specializing in ethnography and religious studies with a focus on sub-Saharan Africa. He holds a PhD from Harvard University (2014), an MDiv from Harvard Divinity School (2005), and a BA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2002).

His research explores African religious traditions, global Christianities, and existential anthropology. Notable works include "Faith in Flux: Pentecostalism and Mobility in Rural Mozambique" (2018) and co-editing "Between Life and Thought: Existential Anthropology and the Study of Religion" (2024). Current projects examine rites of passage in Africanist anthropology and the intersection of indigenous traditions with patriarchal religious systems.

Premawardhana has received grants from the Fulbright Program, Wenner-Gren Foundation, and School for Advanced Research. He serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Religion in Africa and Indigenous Religious Traditions, and was awarded the Pneuma Book Award for his work on Pentecostalism in Mozambique.

His publications reflect interdisciplinary engagement with topics such as religious plurality, ecofeminism, and decolonial theory. He emphasizes fieldwork-based ethnography and existentialist approaches to understanding lived religion.