Speakers
Prof. Danny McCain (PhD)
University of Jos, Nigeria
Danny McCain is a Professor of Biblical Theology who has served at the University of Jos since 1991. He is part of the Department of Religion and Philosophy but currently serves as Director of the Centre for Conflict Management and Peace Studies. From 1988 to 1991, he worked at the Rivers State University in Port Harcourt. McCain is the founder of Global Scholars, a US-based organization that helps support Christian academics in public universities. He also helped create and serves on the international executive committee of the Society of Christian Scholars.
Since 2010, McCain has been engaged in various grass-roots peace efforts in Jos, including organizing dialogue projects, peace efforts through sports, speaking and writing on peace issues. In addition to university work, since 1994, Prof. McCain has worked with the Nigerian Ministry of Education, conducting seminars and developing material to support Christian Religious Education and promoting faith-based approaches to HIV/AIDS prevention. Prof. McCain serves as the chairman of Africa Christian Textbooks and has written 23 academic journal articles, 8 book chapters, 34 books, manuals and monographs and over 121 unpublished conference and seminar papers. He helped initiate and edit the Africa Study Bible.
Before Nigeria, McCain lived in the USA and worked as a roofing contractor, pastor, lecturer, chaplain, school teacher, and principal.
Prof. Damaris Parsitau (PhD)
Calvin University, USA. Director of the Nagel Institute
Dr. Parsitau has over 25 years of experience in teaching, research, and leadership in different universities and research and policy institutions in Africa and beyond. She has conducted numerous research projects and published over 70 book chapters and peer-reviewed journal articles with two forthcoming monographs. Her research and teaching interests include World/African Christianity, Evangelical, and Pentecostal Christianity, and its intersections with women’s leadership, gender and women’s bodies, politics, and civil engagements among other interests. Damaris is also a thought leader in Girls’ Education policy and has published over 20 opinion pieces, policy blogs, and briefs in both print and digital media, all dedicated to strengthening education actors and promoting the use of evidence-based research for effective policy action and practice. She is a leadership coach, mentor, social justice educator, and gender equality advocate.
Prof. Abraham Waigi Ng’ang’a (PhD)
Liverpool Hope University, UK
Abraham Waigi Ng’ang’a is the Coordinator of the Andrew Walls Centre for the study of African and Asian Christianity, at Liverpool Hope University. Abraham is also a Research Fellow at the Akrofi-Christaller Institute of Theology, Mission and Culture, in Akropong, Ghana, and at the Leeds University Centre for African Studies and Leeds Arts Humanities Research Institute.
Born in Kenya, Abraham has studied and worked in Germany, South Africa, Ghana and United Kingdom. His research interest in in the field of Theology and Literature.
Abraham is committed to scholarship as a Christian vocation. Convinced that intellectual and spiritual formation must advance hand in hand in academic pursuits, his vision of a greater humanity informs his quest for societal transformation. He has infused an interdisciplinary approach in his own training and nurture as a scholar. He is committed to intercultural relations and global networking between like-minded institutions.