In The Twilight of Cutting: African Activism and Life after NGOs Saida Hodzic explores the role of Ghanaian feminist and reproductive health NGOs that have organized campaigns against female genital cutting over the last 30 years, a period that has seen a decrease in cutting across Africa, and an increase in discourses surrounding cutting in the West. In problematizing their campaigns, transnational and regional encounters and the forms of governmentality that they produce, the book offers a critical lens on the claims of human rights, and the limits of cultural relativism and feminist activism. In this conversation, we would like to explore the book’s implications for a) how US-based people do and do not, but should support human rights in the global South and b) what the book reveals about the unique challenges and opportunities for human rights activism when governed by a liberal vs. illiberal administration.

Join us for a conversation:

· Saida Hodžić, Anthropology (Cornell University)

· Anu Sharma, Associate Professor, Anthropology (Wesleyan University)

· Moderated by Catherine Mathers, International and Comparative Studies (Duke)

This event is part of the on-going discussion series Conversations in Human Rights, bringing together panelists from other institutions and Duke faculty to engage with their research on hot-button international human rights issues. The series draws together the social sciences, humanities, law, and policy.

To RSVP for the event, email Suzanne Katzenstein by noon April 2nd