Rijk van Dijk

Rijk van Dijk serves as Professor of Religion in Contemporary Africa and its Diaspora at the African Studies Centre Leiden (ASCL), University of Leiden, Netherlands, appointed to this position in September 2017. He also holds the position of Head of the Graduate Programme African Studies and serves as a guest professor at the University of Konstanz's Centre of Excellence and Ethnology-programme in Germany.

His research expertise spans Pentecostalism, globalization and transnationalism, migration, youth studies, and healing practices in African contexts. Van Dijk has conducted extensive fieldwork in urban areas of Malawi, Ghana, and Botswana, examining religious movements and their social implications. His work particularly focuses on the intersections of Pentecostal Christianity with sexuality, relationships, and social change in contemporary Africa.

Van Dijk's scholarly contributions include the monograph Young Malawian Puritans (1993) and co-edited volumes such as The Quest for Fruition through Ngoma (2000) and Religion and AIDS Treatment in Africa: Saving Souls, Prolonging Lives (2014). His current research examines religious engagement with relationships and sexuality in Botswana, analyzing how Pentecostal frameworks interact with traditional practices like marriage and lobola (bride price).

• Co-founder and former editor-in-chief of African Diaspora: A Journal of Transnational Africa in a Global World
• Senior researcher specializing in Botswana, Ghana, and Malawi
• Active participant in multiple collaborative research groups including 'Conflict continuities' and 'Patterns of Living in Southern Africa'

Van Dijk supervises numerous PhD candidates working on diverse aspects of African religious practices, migration, and social transformation. His theoretical approach bridges anthropology, religious studies, and social sciences, with particular attention to how religious movements navigate issues of diversity, identity, and social change in African contexts.