Rosalind I. J. Hackett is an
Extraordinary Professor at University
of the Western Cape, South Africa
(Desmond Tutu Centre for Religion and
Social Justice). She was professor and
head of religious studies and adjunct
in anthropology at the University of
Tennessee, Knoxville. From 2003-08 she
was a Distinguished Professor in the
Humanities. She received her PhD in
religious studies from the University
of Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1986, and
prior to that taught at Nigerian
universities for eight years. In
2000-01 she spent a year at Harvard
University as a Liberal Arts Fellow in
Law and Religion, Harvard Law School,
and was a Senior Fellow at the Center
for the Study of World Religions at
HDS. She was a Rockefeller Research
Fellow at the Kroc Institute of
International Peace Studies at the
University of Notre Dame in 2003-04.
She was appointed a Mellon Fellow at
the University of Cape Town in
Religious Studies in May 2014. Dr.
Hackett has published widely on
religion in Africa, notably on new
religious movements, religious media,
gender and religion, regulation of
religious diversity, and religion and
conflict. She has been very active in
the International Association for the
History of Religions (IAHR) and was
reelected President from 2010-15). She
is the cofounder of the IAHR Women
Scholars Network. She was a founding
member of the African Association for
the Study of Religions and has also
served as President of the North
American Association for the Study of
Religions. She is part of the founding
steering committee of the African
Consortium on Law and Religion
Studies, founder/coordinator of the
Jazz for Justice Project and the UT
Gulu Study and Service Abroad Program
in Northern Uganda.