Title: Engaging stakeholders and audiences with the roots and routes of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) discourses
Funder: Economic and Social Research Council

Abstract: The ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship offers a unique opportunity for me to consolidate my PhD and further my academic career by developing publication track record, expanding my network and disseminating findings to academic, advocacy, and policy actors working on female genital mutilation (FGM) and related topics, and developing and obtaining funding for further research. Aim 1: Develop track record by producing publications based on doctoral research - Objective 1: Publish a monograph based on doctoral thesis. - Objective 2: Publish two peer-reviewed articles based on doctoral research. Aim 2: Follow-up research on FGM among Loita Maasai, Kenya - Objective 1: Conduct fieldwork to follow-up on how the public declaration to abandon FGM in Loita in February 2019 has influenced FGM in the community. - Objective 2: Build capacity and enhance social research skills of two community researchers from Loita. Aim 3: Expand network with academic, policy, and advocacy actors working on (issues related to) FGM/C and use the network to disseminate key findings and policy implications - Objective 1: Collaborate with PolicyBristol to translate research findings into clear and accessible policy briefs, disseminate briefs to its established network (including Government contacts and NGOs), set up a meeting with the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Population, Development and Reproductive Health chaired by Baroness Tonge, and to present findings at the APPG's monthly seminar in which organisations such as Oxfam participate. - Objective 2: Collaborate with the Perivoli Africa Research Centre (PARC) at the University of Bristol to pursue collaboration with African academic, policy, and advocacy actors working on (issues related to) FGM that is both meaningful and conscious of historically rooted power imbalances and inequities in research collaboration with Africa. - Objective 3: Collaborate with the International Research Council on Genital Cutting Practices, an international network of leading researchers on FGM, including Jasmine Abdulcadir, Fuambai Ahmadu, Lucrezia Catania, Giorgia Decarli, Brian Earp, Ellen Gruenbaum, Sara Johnsdotter, Juliet Rogers, Richard A. Shweder and my mentor Saffron Karlsen. - Objective 4: Make use of Bristol University's partnership with UNFPA (and the head of UNFPA UK Matt Jackson) to reach out to Nafissatou Diop (the head of the UN Joint Programme on FGM) and others at the UN Joint Programme to deliver an international webinar to the regional offices involved in the Joint Programme and the headquarters in New York. - Objective 5: Create a network of academics from different disciplines and faculties at the University of Bristol who work on FGM by organising a FGM seminar series to stimulate knowledge exchange and collaborations. - Objective 6: Disseminate findings to non-academic audiences using jargon-free blog posts on an online platform I will develop and host. Aim 4: Plan academic career development with Bristol Clear and obtain funding for further research - Objective 1: Actively work on my academic development and career progression with the development opportunities and resources offered by Bristol Clear. - Objective 2: Make use of the network to identify research gaps, develop a proposal for further research that responds to gaps and is relevant to the academic and professional sector, and apply for funding (e.g. ESRC Future Leaders Scheme).

Lay abstract: The WHO defines FGM as any injury to or removal of the female genitalia for non-medical reasons (WHO 2018). FGM violates several human rights, including the right to being free from violence and discrimination, the right to health, bodily integrity, and, potentially, to life (UNICEF 2005). In many contexts, FGM precedes early marriage and school dropout (Cloward 2016). Beyond health and psychological implications, the WHO (2020) estimates that the current and future financial cost of health care for circumcised women is 1.4 billion USD. While the anti-FGM campaign has made significant progress in ending FGM in some contexts, in other places, FGM remains nearly as common today as it was 30 years ago (UNICEF 2020, 4). My doctoral thesis demonstrates that the globally dominant anti-FGM discourse - as promoted by the UN and adhered to by most civil society actors - fails to include and reflect the multiple and diverse experiences of FGM- affected communities. This failure is an important reason why anti-FGM interventions do not yield the hoped-for results: people are less likely to support interventions that do not resonate with their experiences. Scholars have meticulously documented the diversity of meanings, reasons, types, and attitudes related to FGM (i.a. Gruenbaum 2001; Nnaemeka 2005; Abusharaf 2006; Abdulcadir et al. 2012; Longman and Bradley 2015), but this knowledge has not adequately translated into changed policy and approaches. My doctoral research used an innovative, multi-sited ethnography to "follow" knowledge ("discourses"), policies, and approaches on their travels between FGM-affected communities, NGOs, UN agencies, governments, and academics. My goal was to understand what is required to ensure that the voices and experiences of people from FGM-affected communities are included in anti-FGM policy, advocacy, and programmes. My research identified the "obstructions" that complicate or impede these alternative voices, experiences, and perspectives from actually influencing and changing the dominant anti-FGM discourse and the approaches that were built on it. Understanding these "obstructions" will allow policy- and programme-makers to make policy and programmes more inclusive and reflective of people's experiences and, thus, more effective in encouraging the abandonment of FGM. The Fellowship will allow me to disseminate my findings to stakeholders concerned with FGM to make anti-FGM efforts more inclusive and effective. To maximise impact, I will expand my network with academic and non-academic actors and make insights available to the general public through blog posts. Furthermore, the Fellowship will allow me to contribute to academic debates by publishing my findings and, in doing so, I will develop my track record. I will conduct urgently-needed follow-up research on a public declaration to abandon FGM made in Loita, Kenya, in 2019. Finally, the Fellowship will help me develop my academic career by participating in career development opportunities and applying for my subsequent research funding. The University of Bristol is the perfect host research organisation for my project. PolicyBristol, the Perivoli Africa Research Centre, and the University's partnership with UNFPA offer unique opportunities for networking, sharing findings, and collaborating on future research. My mentors Saffron Karlsen and Mhairi Gibson bring substantial expertise on FGM to my project through their research and supervision of postgraduate and postdoctoral students. I draw from my interdisciplinary background (sociology, anthropology, gender studies) and chose the interdisciplinary pathway and mentors from different disciplines because I believe human rights issues such as FGM require different disciplinary perspectives. For that reason, I aim to bring together Bristol researchers from different disciplines and faculties working on FGM and related issues to stimulate cross-disciplinary and -faculty collaboration on the topic.

Research activity codes: 8.3 POLICY, ETHICS AND RESEARCH GOVERNANCE
Health categories: REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH AND CHILDBIRTH