Naomi Haynes
Up one levelLocation: Edinburgh, UK
Institution: University of Edinburgh
Contact: E-Mail
I am a Chancellor's Fellow in the Department of Social Anthropology at the University of Edinburgh. I am a social anthropologist working at the intersection of religion and political economy. My research to date has examined Pentecostal Christianity in urban Zambia - a country that has made a constitutional declaration that it is a "Christian nation." In part, my work addresses how various aspects of Pentecostalism, especially the prosperity or "health and wealth" gospel, shape exchange relationships and social life more generally. At the same time, I am also interested in the way that macro-economic factors, whether privatization or the Global Financial Crisis that struck during my dissertation fieldwork in 2008 and 2009, impact those same social and relational forms. More broadly, my research is about cultural values - things like ambition, obligation, or charisma - religious economies, and the way that religion shapes people and social relationships.
I received my PhD in 2012 from the University of California, San Diego, where I also taught and assisted with undergraduate courses in anthropology. I am a Fellow of the Africa Studies Centre at the University of Leiden, and an associate scholar on the Gender and Pentecostal Christianity project at the University of Bergen. I am also a co-curator of Anthrocybib, the Anthropology of Christianity Bibliographic Blog (anthrocybib.net). My work has appeared in the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, American Anthropologist, Ethnos, Current Anthropology, and Religion.