Marloes Janson

Marloes Janson is Professor of West African Anthropology at SOAS University of London and Principal Investigator of the European Research Council-funded project 'Muscular Faith: The Interplay between Sport and Religion in Africa'. She holds a PhD in Cultural Anthropology from Leiden University, The Netherlands. Her research interests are at the intersection of anthropology and religion. West Africa (the Gambia and Nigeria) is her ethnographic area of specialization. Her research focuses on new religious movements in Lagos, Nigeria, which mix Islam, Christianity, and Yoruba religion. Her publications include 'Islam, Youth, and Modernity in the Gambia: The Tablighi Jamaʻat' (Cambridge University Press/International African Institute, 2013), which has been awarded the RAI Amaury Talbot Prize for African Anthropology 2014, a special issue of Africa (2016) co-edited with Birgit Meyer, entitled ‘Studying Islam and Christianity in Africa: Moving Beyond a Bifurcated Field’, 'Crossing Religious Boundaries: Islam, Christianity, and ‘Yoruba Religion’ in Lagos, Nigeria' (Cambridge University Press/International African Institute, 2021), and the co-edited book 'Religious Plurality in Africa: Coexistence, Conviviality, Conflict' (James Currey, 2024). She curated the exhibition 'The Spiritual Highway: Religious World Making in Megacity Lagos', featuring photographs by the Nigerian award-winning photographer Akintunde Akinleye.