Women’s Rites: A Multidimensional Examination of Female Circumcision in Sierra Leone

Although there have been significant efforts to eradicate it, the practice of female circumcision continues across most ethnic groups, with a 2019 household survey indicating that 83% of women are circumcised. The practice has been examined across medical, anthropological, and political disciplines, among others. This is, however, not a subject that has been given much attention in humanities disciplines, nor has current research on female circumcision employed arts-based methods to investigate it. This project, therefore, takes a novel approach to this research. Employing arts-based methods lends itself well to research on sensitive subject matter, such as female circumcision and creates space for more nuanced understandings to emerge. This project examines the multiple and diverse social, economic, and political dimensions of why female circumcision continues in Sierra Leone to find more sustainable and practical solutions to addressing it.

Principal Investigator: Dr Laura Martin, University of Nottingham