Admire Thonje

Dr. Admire Thonje is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Johannesburg, with a Ph.D. in Development Studies (University of the Witwatersrand). He has a multidisciplinary academic background that includes a Master’s in Development Studies and an undergraduate degree in Business Management. His primary research engages the intersections of religion, migration, and urban life, with a particular focus on African Pentecostalism among migrant communities in Southern Africa.

Drawing on extensive ethnographic fieldwork in cities such as Johannesburg and Bulawayo—including urban informal settlements—Dr. Thonje explores how affective ties, faith practices, and spiritual economies shape experiences of belonging, precarity, and mobility across borders. His work makes use of affect theory and transnationalism to illuminate how Pentecostal networks both sustain and disrupt social cohesion in contested urban spaces.

In addition to his research on religion, Dr. Thonje has an interest in sport as a powerful social force, particularly its role in shaping identity, belonging, and collective memory among marginalised and mobile populations. His interdisciplinary approach bridges the sociology of religion and sport, highlighting how both arenas generate affective communities that offer meaning, solidarity, and aspirations of inclusion in uncertain urban environments.

Dr. Thonje’s publications and public engagement contribute to broader debates in the sociology of religion, migration studies, and African urbanism.