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Sarojini Nadar

{{short description|South African theologian and biblical scholar}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2021}}

{{Infobox academic

| name = Sarojini Nadar

| image =

| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|year=1976|month=2|day=6}}

| birth_place = Durban, South Africa

| nationality = South African

| occupation = Theologian, Biblical Scholar, Author, and Lecturer

| alma_mater = University of Cape Town (BA), (MA)
University of Natal (PhD)

| workplaces = University of the Western Cape

|awards=

}}

Sarojini Nadar (born 6 February 1976) is a South African theologian and biblical scholar who is the Desmond Tutu Research Chair in Religion and Social Justice at the University of the Western Cape.

Early life and education

Sarojini Nadar, whose first name means "lotus flower", was born on 6 February 1976.{{cite web |title=Curriculum Vitae |url=http://utlo.ukzn.ac.za/Libraries/Nadar/APPENDIX_A1_NADAR_abbreviated_cv_for_heltasa.sflb.ashx |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210605042629/http://utlo.ukzn.ac.za/Libraries/Nadar/APPENDIX_A1_NADAR_abbreviated_cv_for_heltasa.sflb.ashx |archive-date=2021-06-05 |publisher=University of KwaZulu-Natal}} She is of Indian descent and grew up in the Indian township of Phoenix, KwaZulu-Natal.{{cite web|url=https://www.news24.com/witness/archive/professor-nadar-nominated-for-prestigious-award-20150430|title=Professor Nadar nominated for prestigious award|first=Estelle|last=Sinkins|work=The Witness|date=3 February 2014|access-date=5 June 2021}} Nadar is the youngest of seven children born to a poor family.{{cite web|url=https://live.fundza.mobi/home/library/non-fiction-books/because-science-is-fun/sarojini-nadar-professor-of-the-f-words-faith-and-feminism/|title=SAROJINI NADAR - PROFESSOR OF THE 'F WORDS' - FAITH AND FEMINISM|publisher=Fundza}} Her father died when she was eight years old and none of her siblings finished high school. After experiencing abuse in the home, she left to live with an older sister in Grade 10. She graduated from Effingham Secondary School in Durban in 1993. She has said that her career in gender and religion was shaped by reflections on how her mother's life was determined by cultural and religious norms, including being in an arranged marriage at 17, and the lack of opportunities she received.

Nadar received a Bachelor of Arts in English literature and religious studies from the University of Cape Town in 1996, and a Bachelor of Social Science in 1997 and Master of Arts in 2000 in biblical literature from the same university. She received her PhD in biblical hermeneutics and gender from the University of Natal in 2003 at the age of 27.{{cite web|url=https://theglobalchurchproject.com/african-women-theologians-you-should-know-about/|title=9 African Women Theologians You Should Know About|first=Stephanie A.|last=Lowery|publisher=The Global Church Project|date=2020|access-date=21 May 2021}} Her thesis, titled Power, ideology and interpretation/s: womanist and literary perspectives on the book of Esther as resources for gender-social transformation,{{cite thesis|url=https://ukzn-dspace.ukzn.ac.za/handle/10413/3449|title=ower, ideology and interpretation/s : womanist and literary perspectives on the book of Esther as resources for gender-social transformation|first=Sarojini|last=Nadar|publisher=University of KwaZulu-Natal|date=2003|type=Thesis}} looked at the Book of Esther as a "text of terror" in normalising rape culture. While completing it, she confronted the man who had raped her, leading to a seven-year trial. Her rapist confessed before he died in 2010, leaving the trial unfinished.

Career and research

Nadar was a professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. From 2005 until 2012, she was Director of the Gender and Religion Programme, which she cofounded. She was appointed Dean of Research for the College of Humanities in 2012 and promoted to Full Professor in 2014. She has said many of her students, who were mostly older men and leaders in the church, found it difficult to accept her as their teacher.

In 2014, Nadar was a Fellow of the Stellenbosch Institute For Advanced Study, working on a project on gender violence with Elisabeth Gerle.{{cite web|url=https://stias.ac.za/fellows/projects/exploring-interpretations-of-the-constitution-and-the-bible-as-sacred-texts-in-constructing-unequal-gendered-environments/|title=Exploring interpretations of the constitution and the bible as "sacred texts" in constructing (un)equal gendered environments|publisher=Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study}} In 2016, she was appointed Director of the Desmond Tutu Centre for Religion and Justice, and Desmond Tutu Research Chair at University of the Western Cape.{{cite web|url=https://ahc.leeds.ac.uk/arts-humanities-cultures/events/event/1405/public-lecture-by-professor-sarojini-nadar-sanctifying-sex|title=Public Lecture by Professor Sarojini Nadar: "Sanctifying Sex"|date=18 June 2019|access-date=5 June 2021|publisher=University of Leeds}}

Nadar's research has focused on gender and education, including gender-based violence, sexual and reproductive health, and critical pedagogy in higher education. She has published on feminist biblical hermeneutics with a special focus on HIV/AIDS and sexuality. She is on the editorial board of the Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion and is co-editor of the Journal of Constructive Theology — Gender and Religion in Africa.{{cite web|url=https://mg.co.za/article/2007-08-01-civil-society-academics/|title=Civil society: Academics|date=1 August 2007|work=Mail and Guardian|access-date=5 June 2021}} She is a member of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uXE6DwAAQBAJ|title=A History of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians 1989-2007|publisher=Mzuni Press|year=2017|last=Fiedler|first=Rachel NyaGondwe|isbn=9789996045226}}

As an African feminist biblical scholar, Nadar uses a methodology she calls the "Tripolar Model", with three stages: conceptualisation, distantiation, and appropriation.{{cite book|pages=46–47|title=African Feminist Hermeneutics: An Evangelical Reflection|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rADNDQAAQBAJ|first1=Rachel NyaGondwe|last1=Fiedler|first2=Johannes W.|last2=Hofmeyer|publisher=Mzuni Press|year=2016|isbn=9789996045202}}

Awards and honours

In 2012, Nadar received the KwaZulu-Natal's Distinguished Young Women in Science Award (human and social sciences) and in 2013, the university's Distinguished Teachers’ Award.{{cite web|url=https://ukzn.ac.za/news/special-award-for-professor-sarojini-nadar/|title=Special Award for Professor Sarojini Nadar|publisher=University of KwaZulu-Natal}}

The South African National Research Foundation has awarded her its highest accolade, a Tier 1 Research Chair. Her 2012 book African Women, Religion and Health, co-edited with Isabel Apawo Phiri, won the UKZN's annual book award for Best Edited Book, and a New York Catholic Press award.

Personal life

Nadar has been married to Poovan Nadar, a chemical engineer, since 1996 and they have two children.

Selected publications

=Books=

  • {{cite book|year=2002|title=Her-stories: hidden histories of women of faith in Africa|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wMHYAAAAMAAJ|first1=Isabel|last1=Apawo Phiri|first2=Devarakshanam Betty|last2=Govinden|first3=Sarojini|last3=Nadar|publisher=Cluster|isbn=9781875053339}}
  • {{cite book|title=On Being Church: African Women's Voices and Vision|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/253576247|publisher=World Council of Churches|first1=Isabel Apwao|last1=Phiri|first2=Sarojini|last2=Nadar|year =2005|oclc=253576247}}
  • {{cite book|title=African Women, Religion and Health: Essays in Honour of Mercy Amba Ewudziwa Oduyoye|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vGpNAwAAQBAJ|first1=Isabel|last1=Apawo Phiri|first2=Sarojini|last2=Nadar|publisher=Wipf and Stock|year=2012|isbn = 9781620320921}}

=Chapters=

  • {{cite book|first=Sarojini|last=Nadar|chapter=Living in Two Worlds: Spirituality and the Changing Role of the South African Indian Woman in the Full Gospel Church|pages=73–82|title=Women's Spirituality in the Transformation of South Africa|editor=Azila Talit Reisenberger|publisher=Waxmann|year=2002}}
  • {{cite book|last=Nadar|first=Sarojini|chapter=‘Barak God and die!’: Women, HIV, and a theology of suffering|title=Voices from the margin: interpreting the Bible in the Third World|year=2015|pages=189–20|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fNDmBgAAQBAJ|editor=R.S. Sugirthharajah|publisher=Orbis Books|isbn=9781608334551}}
  • {{cite book|first=Sarojini|last=Nadar|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qUmL7Bd9WsIC|title=The Future of the Biblical Past: Envisioning Biblical Studies on a Global Key|year=2012|publisher=Society of Biblical Literature|editor1=Roland Boer|editor2=Fernando Segovia|chapter=Beyond the "Ordinary Reader" and the "Invisible Intellectual": Pushing the Boundaries of Contextual Bible Study Discourses|isbn=9781589837041}}
  • {{cite book|last=Nadar|first=Sarojini|chapter=“Stories are data with soul” 1: Lessons from black 2 feminist epistemology|title=The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Feminism|publisher=Routledge|year=2019|pages=34–45|isbn=9781317542636|editor1=Tasha Oren|editor2=Andrea L. Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MuyYDwAAQBAJ}}

=Journal articles=

  • {{cite journal|last1=Maluleke|first1=Tinyiko Sam|first2=Sarojini |last2=Nadar|title=Breaking the covenant of violence against women|journal=Journal of Theology for Southern Africa |volume=114|year=2002|pages=5–17|url=https://www.proquest.com/openview/6cfdc430521e57e4549a0d1a6c430878/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=37817}}
  • {{cite journal|last=Nadar|first=Sarojini|title=On being the Pentecostal church: Pentecostal women's voices and visions|journal=The Ecumenical Review |volume=56|number=3 |year=2004|pages=354–367|doi=10.1111/j.1758-6623.2004.tb00521.x|url=https://www.proquest.com/openview/5126a152318f76ad4be63d75013968eb/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=41812}}
  • {{cite journal|year=2006|title=What's in a Name? Forging a Theoretical Framework for African Women's Theologies|url=https://ixtheo.de/Record/1644943964|first1=Isabel|last1=Apawo Phiri|first2=Sarojini|last2=Nadar|journal=Journal of Constructive Theology|volume=12|issue=2|pages=5–24}}
  • {{cite journal|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24764316|title="Going Through the Fire with Eyes Wide Open":African Women's Perspectives on indigenous Knowledge, Patriarchy and Sexuality|first1=Isabel|last1=Apawo Phiri|first2=Sarojini|last2=Nadar|journal=The Study of Religion in Southern Africa|year=2009|volume=22|issue=2|pages=5–21|jstor=24764316}}
  • {{cite journal|last=Nadar|first=Sarojini|title=Palatable patriarchy and violence against wo/men in South Africa-Angus Buchan's Mighty Men's Conference as a case study of masculinism|journal=Scriptura: Journal for Contextual Hermeneutics in Southern Africa |volume=102|number=1|year=2009|pages= 551–561|url=https://journals.co.za/doi/abs/10.10520/EJC100502}}
  • {{cite journal|last1=Nadar|first1=Sarojini|first2=Cheryl |last2=Potgieter|title=Liberated through Submission?: The Worthy Woman's Conference as a Case Study of Formenism|journal=Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion |volume=26|number=2|year=2010|pages= 141–151|doi=10.2979/fsr.2010.26.2.141|jstor=10.2979/fsr.2010.26.2.141|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/fsr.2010.26.2.141}}
  • {{cite journal|year=2011|title="The personal is political" : faith and religion in a public university|url=https://journals.co.za/doi/abs/10.10520/EJC111092|first2=Sarojini|last2=Nadar|first1=Isabel|last1=Apawo Phiri|journal=Acta Theologica|volume=sup-4|pages=81–94}}
  • {{cite journal|year=2012|title=Charting the Paradigm Shifts in HIV Research: The Contribution of Gender and Religion Studies|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/490256/summary|journal=Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion|first1=Sarojini|last1=Nadar|first2=Isabel|last2=Phiri|volume=28|issue=2|pages=121–129|doi=10.2979/jfemistudreli.28.2.121|s2cid=144142146}}
  • {{cite journal|last1=Nadar|first1=Sarojini|first2=Adriaan |last2=Van Klinken|title=Introduction:"Queering the Curriculum": Pedagogical Explorations of Gender and Sexuality in Religion and Theological Studies|journal=Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion |volume=34|issue=1|year=2018|pages=101–109|doi=10.2979/jfemistudreli.34.1.16|url=https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/127397/}}
  • {{cite journal|last1=Nadar|first1=Sarojini|first2=Johnathan |last2=Jodamus|title='Sanctifying Sex': Exploring'Indecent'Sexual Imagery in Pentecostal Liturgical Practices|journal=Journal for the Study of Religion |volume=32|issue=1|year=2019|pages=1–20|doi=10.17159/2413-3027/2019/v32n1a5|s2cid=202418035|doi-access=free}}

References

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Category:Living people

Category:1976 births

Category:South African people of Indian descent

Category:People from Durban

Category:University of Cape Town alumni

Category:University of Natal alumni

Category:Academic staff of the University of KwaZulu-Natal

Category:South African women writers

Category:South African writers

Category:South African women academics

Category:South African biblical scholars

Category:Women Christian theologians

Category:21st-century Protestant theologians

Category:Christian feminist theologians

Category:Christian feminist biblical scholars

Category:South African HIV/AIDS activists

Category:Academic staff of the University of the Western Cape