Bio

Stephen Kapinde holds a Ph.D. in Theology from the University of Basel, Switzerland. He conducts interdisciplinary research cutting across religion, politics, democracy, gender and citizenship, reconciliation, and peacebuilding in Africa. Kapinde’s fellowship project is an interdisciplinary study on the complex dialectics between religion, spirituality, and democracy by repositioning the agency of Pentecostal movements as political agents in the quest for democratic renewal in conflicting democracies in Africa, particularly in Kenya. The project investigates how Pentecostal movements undermine or promote democratic renewal by investigating religious activities pursued by Pentecostal movements towards democratic processes and how the Pentecostal understanding of democracy differs from other secular non-state actors.