BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 METHOD:PUBLISH PRODID:-//Telerik Inc.//Sitefinity CMS 15.1//EN BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Eastern Standard Time BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20251102T020000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYDAY=1SU;BYHOUR=2;BYMINUTE=0;BYMONTH=11 TZNAME:Eastern Standard Time TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20250301T020000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYDAY=2SU;BYHOUR=2;BYMINUTE=0;BYMONTH=3 TZNAME:Eastern Daylight Time TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DESCRIPTION:Maxwell African Scholars Union Presents: On the Road with NGOSs : Secrecy\, Transparency\, and Power of Persuasive Gaps by Saida HodžicThi s paper examines Ghanaian NGOs’ use of knowledge in outreach projects aime d at ending female genital cutting. I ask what kind of knowledge is used a nd comes to be understood as truth in the encounters between NGOs and rura l communities. What are the NGOs’ logics and practices of persuasion? What assemblages of knowledge and power gain local traction? Knowledge must ci rculate to be authoritative\, anthropologists and science studies scholars agree. My argument is that knowledge becomes authoritative through both c irculation and stoppage. On the basis of ethnographic research\, I show th at the NGOs are effective because of the interplay of transparency\, secre cy\, and productive gaps in understanding. I argue that persuasion depends on performance of truth\, rather than the latest biomedical knowledge or newly calibrated policy prescriptions.Saida Hodžic is an Assistant Profess or of Anthropology and Feminist\, Gender\, and Sexuality Studies at Cornel l University. She received a PhD in Medical Anthropology from UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco\, and taught at George Mason University and Brown Uni versity\, where she held the first Louise Lamphere Visiting Assistant Prof essorship in Gender Studies. Her research examines the relationship betwee n activism and governmentality in contemporary transnational movements tha t take gendered bodies as a site of intervention. She has published on Gha naian NGOs’ cultures of governance and their transnational dimensions. Her work focuses on productive aspects of political formations whose effects are not simply salutary\, the contingencies of governmental power\, and th e unintended consequences of NGOs’ tenuous successes. Her forthcoming book \, Of Rebels\, Spirits\, and Social Engineers: The Awkward Endings of Fema le Genital Cutting examines the logics\, techniques\, and effects of Ghana ian interventions against cutting. DTEND:20130412T180000Z DTSTAMP:20260511T212258Z DTSTART:20130412T163000Z LOCATION: SEQUENCE:0 SUMMARY:Maxwell African Scholars Union presents: Saida Hod�ic UID:RFCALITEM639141169782676442 X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:Maxwell African Scholars Union Presents: On th e Road with NGOSs: Secrecy\, Transparency\, and Power of Persuasive Gaps b y Saida Hodžic

This paper examines Ghanaian NGOs’ use of knowledge in outreach projects aimed at ending female genital cutting. I ask what ki nd of knowledge is used and comes to be understood as truth in the encount ers between NGOs and rural communities. What are the NGOs’ logics and prac tices of persuasion? What assemblages of knowledge and power gain local tr action? Knowledge must circulate to be authoritative\, anthropologists and science studies scholars agree. My argument is that knowledge becomes aut horitative through both circulation and stoppage. On the basis of ethnogra phic research\, I show that the NGOs are effective because of the interpla y of transparency\, secrecy\, and productive gaps in understanding. I argu e that persuasion depends on performance of truth\, rather than the latest biomedical knowledge or newly calibrated policy prescriptions.

Sai da Hodžic is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Feminist\, Gender\ , and Sexuality Studies at Cornell University. She received a PhD in Medic al Anthropology from UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco\, and taught at Geor ge Mason University and Brown University\, where she held the first Louise Lamphere Visiting Assistant Professorship in Gender Studies. Her research examines the relationship between activism and governmentality in contemp orary transnational movements that take gendered bodies as a site of inter vention. She has published on Ghanaian NGOs’ cultures of governance and th eir transnational dimensions. Her work focuses on productive aspects of po litical formations whose effects are not simply salutary\, the contingenci es of governmental power\, and the unintended consequences of NGOs’ tenuou s successes. Her forthcoming book\, Of Rebels\, Spirits\, and Social Engin eers: The Awkward Endings of Female Genital Cutting examines the logics\, techniques\, and effects of Ghanaian interventions against cutting.

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