Ylva Hernlund

Ylva Hernlund

"Research Interests: Decision making, female circumcision, gender, ritual, visual communication; the Gambia and Senegal

"I have been doing research in The Gambia, West Africa since 1988, focusing on local reactions to campaigns against female genital cutting (FGC). I videotaped Gambia's first set of alternative rituals, 'initiation without mutilation,' in 1998. I am now a Research Associate through CSDE, involved in a three-year NSF-funded study with Bettina Shell-Duncan, which uses quantitative and qualitative methods to examine decision making around FGC and uses a local team of field workers. I am affiliated with Gambia College and Cheik Anta Diop University, Dakar, Senegal.""

Books

• Bettina Shell-Duncan and Ylva Hernlund, editors. Female "Circumcision" in Africa: Culture, Change, and Controversy (Boulder, CO: Lynn Rienner, 2000).
• Ylva Hernlund and Bettina Shell-Duncan, editors. Transcultural Bodies: Female Genital Cutting in Global Context (Rutgers University Press, 2007).