October 13, 2018

American Academy of Religion (AAR) Roundtable on “An Intimate Rebuke”

The African Religions Unit of the American Academy of Religions sponsored a Roundtable discussion of my book, An Intimate Rebuke: Female Genital Power in Ritual and Politics in West Africa, at the annual meeting in Denver this past November.

In this forum, a distinguished panel of experts in African Indigenous religions, ethnography, and postcolonial theory presented their assessments of the work. I was thrilled by their enthusiastic endorsements: “ground-breaking,” “revolutionary,” “brilliant,” “path-making”. No author could hope for better reviews. I’m delighted that all the remarks from the session were published by the Journal of Africana Religions  7, 2 (2019)

The panelists were:

Joseph Hellweg, Florida State University
Dianne Stewart, Emory University
Sian Hawthorne, SOAS, University of London
Jacob K. Olupona, Harvard University
Adriaan van Klinken, University of Leeds (UK), who is the co-chair of the African Religions Unit and who was responsible for organizing the event, presided.

I am grateful to each and every one of the participants for their devoted attention to the book’s reading and for their thoughtful remarks.

Read Roundtable Excerpts