UKZN Honours Student Wins Best Paper Award at ASRSA Congress

Religion Studies honours student Mr Chukwudera Nwodo received the Best Student Conference Paper award at the 46th Annual Congress of the Association for the Study of Religion in Southern Africa (ASRSA).

Held at the University of South Africa in Pretoria, the hybrid conference focused on the theme: ‘Reimagining the Study of Religions within the African Digital Humanities’.

Nwodo’s presentation, titled: ‘Shifting Towards Digitisation to Preserve Igbo Language, Indigenous Religion, Culture and Society: An Autoethnographic Lens from an Igbo, Nigerian-South African’, explored the future of the Igbo language and its traditional religion both of which, he argues, are at risk of extinction in the 21st Century.

ASRSA – currently chaired by the Dean and Head of the School of Social Sciences at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), Professor Federico Settler – is an independent, not-for-profit academic association that promotes the scholarly study of religion in southern Africa and across the world. It seeks to advance research, encourage collaboration among scholars, support respect for diverse religions and world views, and contribute to building a just and peaceful society.

School of Arts senior lecturer Dr Cherry Muslim congratulated Nwodo saying: “We are very proud of Mr Nwodo and our Institution as this is the third year in a row that a UKZN honours student has taken first place for the student presentations. Moreover, the presentations involved honours through to PhD students. This is, without a doubt, a feather in the cap of UKZN’s Discipline of Religion.”

Said Nwodo: “My work proposes practical ways to protect Igbo religion, language and culture through digitisation. African studies remain stored in Western archives and institutions, while younger Igbo generations lose contact daily with their roots.” Digitisation, he asserts, offers a path to reclaiming cultural memory and dignity.

Nwodo’s achievement stands as a testament to the depth, relevance and innovation emerging from within the College of Humanities at UKZN and its young scholars, embodying the spirit of both ASRSA’s mission and the evolving landscape of African digital humanities.

Words: Jennene Naidu

Photograph: Supplied