
Description
Sylvanus was one of the Principal Investigators of the Trust in Medicine Project where he looked at the translation of Ebola prevention and control measures in Sierra Leone. In this context, his specific interest focused on how religious beliefs and practices influenced trust in biomedical measures prescribed during the Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone.
Attachment to religious beliefs and practices, mostly when perceived as fanatical, has often been viewed as one of the crucial impeding factors. Although there appears to be much credence in this, religious beliefs and practices were not simply a barrier to establishing trust in biomedical prescription but, in some cases, a source of support in the promotion of biomedical prevention and control measures. Sylvanus’ research sought to present a balanced view by critically examining how observance of religious beliefs and practices influenced people’s trust or distrust in the prescribed biomedical prevention and control measures. Apart from examining the impact of religious beliefs and practices on the different perceptions people hold about the origins and treatment of EVD, he further sought to ascertain to what extent such perceptions informed health-seeking behavior, with what consequences and with what lessons learned for any future outbreak.
Key publication
Team members
Sylvanus Spencer (1963-2021)
Head of the Department of History and African Studies at the University of Sierra Leone
Living in a forest landscape (Completed Project)
Laura MattThis project engages with different readings of the Northern Sierra Leonean landscape by examinin...
Civil Drones in Africa (COMPLETED PROJECT)
René UmlaufBased on the increasing use of civil drones, this project examines new spatial formats that emerg...
Performing State Boundaries (Completed Project)
Christof LammerThis project investigates how boundaries between state, civil society and kinship are performed i...
Science at the Ugandan Parliament (Completed Project)
Kerry HoldenThis project explores evidence regimes in parliamentary deliberations in Uganda and asks how new ...
Digital Imaginaries (Completed Project)
Julien McHardy, Richard RottenburgProject Intro Articulating digital technologies and Africa together is an opportunity to reevalua...
Curriculum Development (Completed Project)
Richard Rottenburg, René Umlauf, Herbert Muyinda, Keith BreckenridgeA major goal of this project is the publication of an open access series of edited volumes with c...
Ghana’s Biometric Population Register (Completed Project)
Alena ThielIn the emerging field of biometric identity registration, much is known about the potential of es...
Concerning issues: Making things political in Durban (Completed Project)
Eva RiedkeCurrently, Eva is working on turning her thesis into a book and re-writing individual chapters in...
The Emergence of Global Taxpayers (Completed Project)
Johanna MuglerThis project explores transnational legal and fiscal expert networks and the organisational envir...
Customary and International Law: Peacebuilding in the Sudan
Philippe GoutPhilippe’s research investigates transnational legal pluralism in the context of international pe...
Kinship and Politics (Completed Project)
Tatjana Thelen, Christof LammerAt the moment Tatjana is interested in the historical development of knowledge production on kins...
Date Palm Production and Socio-Economic Changes Along the Nile in Northern Sudan (Completed Project)
Enrico IlleEnrico currently studies supply chains involving date production (Phoenix dactylifera) along the ...
Translating Global Health Technologies (Completed Project)
Richard Rottenburg, Uli Beisel, René Umlauf, Sung-Joon ParkDuring the second phase of our project we focused on the translation of global health technologie...
Our Fellow Creatures (Completed Project)
Amy FieldAmy’s focus on the animal protection movement in Germany is on the generational, political, and m...
Oil and Social Change in Niger and Chad (Completed Project)
Andrea BehrendsThe project is designed as a second follow-up to the project “Significations of oil and social ch...
Adaptation and Creativity in Africa (Completed Project)
Richard Rottenburg, Andrea Behrends, René Umlauf, Uli Beisel, Ronn Müller, Sung-Joon Park, Siri Lamoureaux, Eva RiedkeThis research programme examined the ways in which technologies and significations are entwined a...
The Promise of Access to Justice in Rwanda (Completed Project)
Stefanie BognitzThis PhD project has analyzed contemporary re-makings of legal institutions in Rwanda and conside...
Discourses and Practices of Crisis in the Egyptian Higher Education (Completed Project)
Daniele CantiniThis research project looked at the configurations of society, legitimacy, knowledge and power in...
Virtuous Language (Completed Project)
Siri LamoureauxThis research looked at the language of a changing social and ethical order among new Christians ...
Trust in Medicine After the EVD Epidemic (Completed Project)
Sung-Joon Park, Uli Beisel, Lorenz Gosch, Sylvanus Spencer (1963-2021), Susan EriksonThe scale of the EVD epidemic in the West African countries has been unprecedented. Lack of trust...
Race/Trouble (Completed Project)
Katharina SchrammThis project inquires into race trouble and the reverberations of classificatory violence in cont...
The Local Making of a South Sudanese State (Completed Project)
Timm SureauTimm’s research in Torit town in South Sudan is on the continuous construction and reconstruction...