Projects
2014-2020:
Potentials and problems of popular inculturation hermeneutics in Maasai biblical interpretation
During 2014-2020, VID Specialized University hosted a project entitled “Potentials and problems of popular inculturation hermeneutics in Maasai biblical interpretation.” The project was funded by the Norwegian Research Council, and it was directed by Professor Knut Holter. Other participants were Beth Elness-Hanson (Ph.D. student), Zephania Shila Nkesela (Ph.D. student), and Hoyce Mbowe (Postdoc researcher).
The Bible plays increasing roles in Maasai contexts and the project aimed at investigating the “potentials” (for liberation and development) and “problems” (of oppression and marginalization) of popular biblical interpretation.
Publishing highlights (cf. below) were Elness-Hanson’s monograph in 2017 and then three books in 2020: monographs by Mbowe and Nkesela and an anthology edited by Knut Holter and Lemburis Justo.
Researchers
Beth Elness-Hanson
(USA)
…has done a PhD entitled “Generational Curses in the Pentateuch: An American and Maasai Intercultural Analysis,” completed and defended in 2016. The PhD was supervised by Professor Knut Holter, and the members of the PhD committee were Professor Madipoane Masenya (University of South Africa), Professor Fernando Segovia (Vanderbilt University, USA), and Professor Marta Høyland Lavik (VID Specialized University, Norway).
Zephania Shila Nkesela
(Tanzania)
…has done a PhD thesis entitled “A Maasai Encounter with the Bible: Nomadic Lifestyle as a Hermeneutical Question,” completed and defended in June 2018. The PhD was supervised by Professor Knut Holter, and the members of the PhD committee were Dr Lechion Peter Kimilike (Open University, Tanzania), Dr Ntozakhe Cezula (Stellenbosch University, South Africa), and Professor Kari Storstein Haug (VID Specialized University, Norway).
Hoyce Mbowe
(Tanzania)
…has done a postdoctoral project entitled “Maasai Women and the Old Testament: Towards an Emancipatory Reading”, supervised by Professor Knut Holter.
Knut Holter
(Norway)
…has done research on “Popular inculturation hermeneutics in Maasai biblical interpretation: Some postcolonial perspectives”.