Religion

Professor

• Islam in Africa, Contemporary Islamic Reform, Ethiopia, Horn of Africa

Terje Østebø holds a joint appointment in the Department of Religion and the Center for African Studies. He was the founding director of the Center for Global Islamic Studies, serving between 2014 and 2017. He received his Ph.D. in the History of Religions from Stockholm University. Before joining the faculty of the University of Florida, he was an Assistant Professor at NLA University College in Bergen, Norway.

Østebø’s research interests are Islam in contemporary Ethiopia, Islam, politics, and Islamic reformism in Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa, and Salafism in Africa. He has lived in Ethiopia for 6 years and has a broad field-research experience and an extensive publication record on the abovementioned topics. He has also been involved in briefing/advising national and international policymakers on issues related to religion and politics in the Horn of Africa.

He has a broad experience with teaching, both nationally and abroad. Such teaching includes Islam in Ethiopia (both from historical and contemporary perspectives), Ethiopian history, contemporary Ethiopian society and politics, as well as religion and politics on the Horn of Africa. He also has extensive experience with teaching courses on Islam and Muslim cultures in East Africa, Christian-Muslim relations in East Africa, Christianity in contemporary Africa, as well as African Traditional Religions. The teaching has been carried out within the discipline of Religious Studies and in cross-disciplinary settings. He is also fluent in Oromo and has good knowledge of Amharic.

Books

• Handbook on Islam in Africa (editor), forthcoming, Routledge Press, 2021.
• Islam, Ethnicity, and Conflict in Ethiopia: The Bale Insurgency (1963-1970). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020.
• Muslim Ethiopia: The Christian Legacy, Identity Politics, and Islamic Reformism (co-edited with Patrick Desplat), New York: Palgrave-Macmillan, 2013.
• Localising Salafism: Religious Change among Oromo Muslims in Bale, Ethiopia, Leiden: Brill, 2012.
• A History of Islam and Inter-religious Relations in Bale, Ethiopia, Stockholm: Almquist & Wiksell International, 2005.

Reports

• Being Muslim and Becoming Ethiopian: Contemporary Dynamics among Ethiopian Muslims. Rift Valley Institute, 2023 (26 pages).
• Religion, Ethnicity, and Charges of Extremism: The Dynamics of Inter-communal Violence in Ethiopia (co-authored with Jörg Haustein, Fasika Gedif, Kedir Jemal Kadir, Muhammed Jemal, Yihenew Alemu Tesfaye), European Institute of Peace, 2021.
• Religion and Covid-19 in Ethiopia: Interpretations and Implications (co-authored with Marit Tolo Østebø) Oslo Analytica Report (commissioned by USAID), 2020.
• Oromo Politics: Current Dynamics and Divisions (co-authored with Kjetil Tronvoll), Oslo Analytica Report (commissioned by USAID). 2020.
• The Intellectualist Movement in Ethiopia, the Muslim Brotherhood and the issue of Moderation, Norwegian Peacebuilding Resource Centre Report & Brief, 2015.
• Islamic Militancy in Africa, Africa Security Brief no 23, Washington DC: Africa Center for Strategic Studies, 2012.
• Islamism in the Horn of Africa: Assessing Ideologies, Actors, and Objectives, International Law and Peace Institute Report No. 2, 2010.

Articles

• “Religious Dynamics and Conflicts in Contemporary Ethiopia: Expansion, Protection, and Reclaiming Space, in African Studies Review, 63, 3, 2023: 721-744.
• “Introduction: The Formation of Religious Minorities in Muslim Africa” (co-authored with Benedikt Pontzen), in Islamic Africa, 13, 1, 2022: 115-132.
• “God’s Wrath in the Era of the Digidemic: Religious Interpretations of Covid-19 in Ethiopia” (co-authored with Kjetil Tronvoll, and Marit Tolo Østebø), in Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 89, 4, 2021: 1334-1359.
• “Religion and the ‘Secular Shadow’: Responses to Covid-19 in Ethiopia” (co-authored with Kjetil Tronvolland Marit Tolo Ostebo) in Religion, Vol 51, 3, 2021: 339-358.
• “Health and Politics in Pandemic Times: Covid-19 Responses in Ethiopia” (co-authored with Kjetil Tronvolland Marit Tolo Ostebo) in Health Policy and Planning, 2021: 1-9 https://doi.org/10.1093/heapol/czab091
• “Introduction”, forthcoming in Terje Østebø (ed.) Handbook on Islam in Africa. Routledge Press, 2021.
• “African Salafism”, forthcoming in Terje Østebø (ed.) Handbook on Islam in Africa. Routledge Press, 2021.
• “Islamic Reform in Africa”, forthcoming in Emad Hamdeh and Natana Delong-Bas (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Reform. London: Oxford University Press, 2021.
• “Ethiopia and Saudi Arabia: Between Distance and Proximity”, forthcoming in Peter Mandeville (ed.) Wahhabism in the World: Understanding Saudi Arabia’s Global Influence on Religion. London: Oxford University Press, 2021.
• “Religion and Ethnicity as Located and Localized”, in Vasudha Narayanan (ed.) Companion on Religion and Materiality. London: Wiley, 2021.
• “New Regimes of Religious Entrepreneurship: The Self-sanctifying Sufi Leader, Women and the Commodified Baraka” (co-authored with Yekatit Getachew) in Africa Today, 67,2-3, 2020.
• “Interpreting Contemporary Oromo Politics in Ethiopia: An Ethnographical Approach”, (co-authored with Kjetil Tronvoll) in Journal of Eastern African Studies, 14, 4, 2020 (published online).
• “Christianity and Islam in Ethiopia: Religious Nationalism and the Muslim ‘Other’”, in Kjersti Larsen, Marina Prusac Lindhagen, and Øyvind Fuglerud (eds.) Negotiating Memory from the Romans to the 21st Century: Damnatio Memoriae. London: Routledge, 2020.
• “Ethiopian Muslims and the Discourse about Moderation”, (co-authored with Wallelign Shemsedin) in Journal of Modern African Studies, 55, 2, 2017.
• “Islam and Islamic Reformism in Ethiopia”, in David Appleyard, Alessandro Bausi, Wolfgang Hahn, Steven Kaplan, Siegbert Uhlig (eds.) Ethiopia - History, Culture and Challenges. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2017.
• “Islamic Reformism as Network of Meaning: The Intellectualist Movement in Ethiopia”, in Sociology of Islam, 4, 3, 2016.
• “African Salafism: Religious Purity and the Politicization of Purity”, in Islamic Africa, 6, 1-2, 2015. 
• “Salafism, State Politics, and the Question of ‘Extremism’ in Ethiopia”, in Comparative Islamic Studies, 8, 1, 2014.
• “Are Religious Leaders a Magic Bullet for Social/Societal Change?  A critical look at anti-FGM interventions in Ethiopia”, (co-authored with Marit Tolo Østebø) in Africa Today, 60, 3, 2014.
• “Claims for Authority at the Shrine of Shaykh Hussein, Ethiopia”, in Journal of Islamic Studies, 25, 2, 2014.
• “Are Religious Leaders Key in the Efforts to Eradicate Female Genital Cutting?”, (co-authored with Marit Tolo Østebø) in Instituut Culturele Antropologie (Institute Cultural Anthropology), March 2014.
• “The revenge of the Jinn: Spirits, Salafi Reform, and the Continuity in Change in Contemporary Ethiopia”, in Contemporary Islam, 8, 1, 2014.
• “Islam and State Relations in Ethiopia: From Containment to the Production of a ’Governmental Islam’”, in Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 81, 4, 2013.
• “EPRDF’s Revolutionary Democracy and Religious Plurality: Islam and Christianity in Post-Derg Ethiopia”, (co-authored with Jörg Haustein) in Jon Abbink and Tobias Hagmann (eds.) Reconfiguring Ethiopia: The Politics of Authoritarian Reform, London: Routledge, 2013.
• “Muslims in Ethiopia: The Christian Legacy, Identity Politics and Islamic Reformism”, (co-authored with Patrick Desplat) in Patrick Despat and Terje Østebø (eds.) Muslim Ethiopia: The Christian Legacy, Identity Politics, and Islamic Reformism, New York: Palgrave-Macmillan, 2013.
• “Being Young, Being Muslim in Contemporary Bale”, in Patrick Despat and Terje Østebø (eds.) Muslim Ethiopia: The Christian Legacy, Identity Politics, and Islamic Reformism, New York: Palgrave-Macmillan, 2013.
• “Postscript”, in in Patrick Despat and Terje Østebø (eds.) Muslim Ethiopia: The Christian Legacy, Identity Politics, and Islamic Reformism, New York: Palgrave-Macmillan, 2013.
• “EPRDF’s Revolutionary Democracy and Religious Plurality: Islam and Christianity in Post-Derg Ethiopia”, (co-authored with Jörg Haustein) in Journal of East African Studies, 5, 2, 2011.
• “Local Reformers and the Search for Change: The Emergence of Salafism in Bale, Ethiopia”, in Africa, 81, 4, 2011.

For more information, see: http://florida.academia.edu/Terje

Curriculum vitae