10.10.2025 - Legacies of (post)colonial Bible Translations
© James Wyld

Legacies of (post)colonial Bible Translations in the Arctic, Australia/Oceania and West Afrika

International Academic Conference

Date 10 October 2025
Venue Johannisstrasse 4, Room J101, University of Münster
Registration For organizational reasons, we kindly ask you to register at felicity.jensz@uni-muenster.de

The project "Global Bible: British and German Bible Societies Translating Colonialism" (GloBil) aims to critically investigate British and German contributions to the creation of a global bible, that is the attempt to translate Christian scripture into all the languages of the world. By early in the twentieth century, some portion of the bible had been translated into approximately 1,000 languages, including many with no previous written language.

Program

9.30 Coffee

9.45 Welcome

Dr. Felicity Jensz, Principal Investigator, GloBil Project, Münster (moderator for the day)

10.00 - 11.00 Bible Societies, Histories and Legacies

The Bible Society of Ghana and Bible Translation: From the Missionary Colonial Era to the Contemporary Era and Beyond.
Dr Kennedy Kwame Owiredu Ph.D. Research Fellow, Stellenbosch University, Ghana Bible Society 

The Bible in West Papua
Friedrich Tometten, Bible consultant for Indonesian Bible Society 

11.00 - 11.30 Artistic Presentation

Leeza Awojobi, M.A, project collaborator and artist, Bristol, UK

11.30 - 11:45 Discussion

11:45 - 13.00 Light Lunch and Coffee Break

13.00 - 14.30 Case Study Presentations

Bible Societies and Comparative Linguists
Dr. Floris Solleveld, Former Project Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Currently: Warburg Institute, University of London, England

The Bible in the Arctic
Professor Hilary Carey, Professor, University of Bristol, UK

Translating the Bible on the Gold Coast
Professor Martha Frederiks, Professor, Utrecht University, Netherlands

The ajami experiment: vernacular bible translation in Arabic script in Africa

14.30 - 15.00 Coffee Break

15.30 - 17.00 Bibles on Display

Displaying Bibles in Germany
Dr. Christian Herrmann, Abteilungsleiter Sondersammlungen, Fachreferent Buchwissenschaft und Theologie, Württembergische Landesbibliothek

Displaying Bibles and the GloBil exhibition in the Bible Museum 
Dr. Michael Wandusim, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, GloBil Project, Münster 

Digital Humanities and the GloBil Projekt
Deninis Voltz [TBC]/Benjamin Weber

From 18.00 Exhibition Opening (Bible Museum)

Participant List

International
German-based
  • Friedrich Tometten, Bible Consultant for the Indonesian Bible Society
  • Dr. Christian Herrmann, Abteilungsleiter Sondersammlungen, Fachreferent Buchwissenschaft und Theologie, Württembergische Landesbibliothek
  • Dr. Felicity Jensz, Principal Investigator, GloBil Project, Münster
  • Dr. Michael Wandusim, Postdoctoral Research Associate, GloBil Project, Münster
  • Dennis Voltz, Research Software Engineer, Münster
  • Dr. Benjamin Weber, Research Software Engineer, Münster