Participant Info

First Name
Britta
Last Name
Frede
Country
Germany
State
Affiliation
University of Bayreuth
Website URL
https://www.islamwissenschaft.uni-bayreuth.de/en/team/britta-frede/index.php#tabPerson
Keywords
Research on colonial and postcolonial Sufism in West Africa, French colonial policies in Africa, Mauritania since 1800, Islamic Manuscript Culture in Africa since 1800, Islamic education in postcolonial Mauritania, Kenya and South Africa, Women and Islamic Authority since 1800
Availability
Media Contact
Additional Contact Information
PhD
PhD

Personal Info

Photo
About Me

I am a senior researcher within German academia, currently holding the chair of Islamic studies in Bayreuth, a university with a long-standing tradition in African studies. It is the only chair in Germany within Islamic Studies focusing on Muslims in Africa and we approach the field from a mainly historical perspective.

My areas of special interest are Gender and Authority with a special focus on female contributions to Islamic manuscript culture. I further worked quite a bit on the dynamics of religious
transformation in colonial and postcolonial times, especially in Mauritania. One of my interests further touches upon reflections on spatiality by studying translocality in the trans-Saharan region and the Indian Ocean since 1800. In my recent work, I explore Intersectionality as a research perspective looking especially at more recent developments in the field of Islamic education in African urban environments like Nouakchott, Mombasa, Nairobi, and Cape Town.

Recent Publications

Britta Frede: Le monde renversé? La Fayḍa chez les Idaw ‘Alī après les années 1930. In: Jean Schmitz, Abdel Wedoud Ould-Cheikh, Cédric Jourde (Hrsg.): Le Sahel musulman entre soufisme et salafisme : Subalternité, luttes de classement et transnationalisme. – Paris : Karthala, 2022. – S. 251-274.

Britta Frede: In an Era of Terror Threats : Negotiating the Governance of a (Trans)Local Islamic Heritage in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania. In: Jeanine Elif Dağyeli, Claudia Ghrawi, Ulrike Freitag (Hrsg.): Claiming and Making Muslim Worlds. – Berlin ; Boston : De Gruyter, 2021. – S. 131-157.
doi:10.1515/9783110726534-006

Britta Frede: What Does Traditional Islamic Education Mean? : Examples from Nouakchott’s Contemporary Female Learning Circles. In: Ousmane Oumar Kane (Hrsg.): Islamic Scholarship in Africa : New Directions and Global Contexts. – Oxford : Boydell & Brewer, 2021. – S. 300-320.

Britta Frede: Female Muslim Scholars in Africa. In: Fallou Ngom, Mustafa H. Kurfi, Royin Falola (Hrsg.): The Palgrave Handbook of Islam in Africa. – Cham : Palgrave Macmillan, 2020. – S. 221-232. doi:10.2307/j.ctv136c3ds.24

Media Coverage
Country Focus
Expertise by Geography
Africa
Expertise by Chronology
19th century, 20th century, 21st century
Expertise by Topic
Book History, Colonialism, Gender, Race, Religion, Slavery, Women