Associate Professor Lee Scharnick-Udemans
Senior researcher
Senior researcher, Associate Professor Lee Scharnick-Udemans’ current research focuses on religious diversity and pluralism. It is important for both its intellectual contribution to the interdisciplinary and intersectional study of religion and for its social significance for understanding and enacting equality in a vastly inequitable world. Assoc Prof Scharnick-Udemans is also a trained filmmaker with expertise in documenting issues and phenomena related to the religious landscape in South Africa. In 2019 she was awarded a prestigious catalyst fellowship by the University of Edinburgh. Assoc Prof Scharnick-Udemans graduated with a B. Soc Sci degree from the University of Cape Town in 2007. Her majors were in Religious Studies and Media Studies. She obtained a Bachelor of Social Science (Honours) in 2010 and obtained her Master’s degree in Social Science in 2012 in the area of Religious Pluralism and Media, also at UCT. She obtained her PhD in 2016 at the age of 29 from the University of Cape Town.
Trained in the study of religion and society, Assoc Prof Scharnick-Udemans researches, teaches and supervises in the area of religious diversity, pluralism, religion education, the political economy of religion, new religious movements, and the media. She is the co-editor of the Journal for the Study of Religion, an Editorial Board member of the African Journal of Gender and Religion and Executive member for the Association for the Study of Religion in Southern Africa.
Assoc Prof Scharnick-Udemans, and Dr Megan Robertson have worked tirelessly in setting up a number of national and international partnerships that have been most productive in furthering the vision and objectives of the Desmond Tutu Centre for Religion and Social Justice.
Centre for Religion and Public Life feature
Scharnick-Udemans was featured on the Centre for Religion and Public Life (CRPL) at the University of Leeds’ blog, Religion in Public Life in the Researcher of the Month series.
This series aims to showcase the work of scholars in the field of religion and theology and demonstrate how their work examines the role of religion in public life.
Al Jazeera feature
In March 2020, Assoc Prof Scharnick-Udemans was interviewed by media network Al Jazeera which is renowned for its critique of global news coverage and media trends. The interview focused on the relationship between the media and televangelists in South Africa. Scharnick-Udemans discussed the apparent rise of televangelism in South Africa but also offered critique of the ways in which the TV pastors are often portrayed as manipulative, exploitative and deceptive. The interview also engaged with the regulation of religion and media in South Africa. More specifically Scharnick-Udemans discussed the ways in which the media often uncritically problematises televangelists by making truth claims and assumptions about what is deemed “authentic” Christianity.
In 2023, Scharnick-Udemans appeared on an on-screen pre-recorded interview for the Listening Post, a weekly media analysis show for Al Jazeera English, London. She spoke on the relationships between media, deviance, danger and new religious movements.
Women in Academia and Leadership
In June 2021 the University of the Western Cape’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Academic, Prof Vivienne Lawack, released the third edition of the UWC digimag focusing on excellent women in academia and in leadership.
Assoc Prof Scharnick-Udemans contributed to the digimag sharing relatable struggles for achieving a healthy work-life balance in the time of COVID in her piece, “Notion of a healthy work-life balance just a myth”. Read the full edition here.