Associate Professor and Senior Researcher, University of the Western Cape

Lee-Shae Salma Scharnick-Udemans is an associate professor and senior researcher in the Desmond Tutu Centre for Religion and Social Justice at the University of the Western Cape in Cape Town, South Africa. Her publications focus on the dynamics between the political economies of religion and media, and she addresses topics such as religious normativity, racialization of religion, and religious privilege, pluralism, and diversity. A religious studies specialist, Dr. Scharnick-Udemans’s work spans religious traditions and includes the study of mediated expressions of Islam, Christianity, Satanism, new religious movements, and indigenous African religions.