Document Actions
Birmingham Conference Report
The fourth international and interdisciplinary conference of the European Research Network on Global Pentecostalism (GloPent) was held at Harborne Hall, Birmingham from 6-7 February 2009.
GloPent holds annual conferences in rotation in the universities of Vrije Amsterdam, Heidelberg and Birmingham, hosted by three research centres in these universities. The conference theme was 'Transnational Pentecostalism in Europe', and despite inclement weather, 65 delegates came from European universities in Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, France and the UK. We also had delegates from several African and Asian countries, mostly doctoral students studying in Europe. Guest speakers included Bernice Martin (University of London), Afe Adogame (University of Edinburgh) and Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu (graduate of Birmingham, now in Trinity Theological College, Ghana). (see conference programme)
Sadly the eminent African historian Ogbu Kalu, who should have been a guest speaker, died just prior to the conference. During the conference a tribute was paid to him and his paper was read out and discussed. Overall, the conference was a stimulating and interesting occasion.
The next GloPent will be held in Amsterdam in the beginning of 2010.