Publications
Academic Journal Articles
Van Bavel, Hannelore. In press. Cisgender Women Navigating Genital Insecurities: Coping, Genital Cosmetic Surgery, and the Role of Medical Encounters. Archives of Sexual Behavior.
Van Bavel, Hannelore and Mhairi A. Gibson. In press. Applying Anthropology to FGM/C. American Anthropologist. https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/wrquk
Van Bavel, Hannelore, Dorothy Takyiakwaa, and Natasha Carver. 2024. A Genealogy of Silencing: Tracing the Impact of Critiques of the Hegemonic Discourse on Female Genital Mutilation. Women’s History Review. https://doi.org/10.1080/09612025.2024.2434216
Van Bavel, Hannelore; Seleyian Agnes Partoip; Hellen Topishia Koyie; Sylvester Parkiswa; Daniel Maibayu; Samuel Kimani. 2023. Understanding the roles of Alternative Rites of Passage and Public Declarations in FGM/C abandonment: an ethnographic study among the Loita Maasai, Kenya. Social Science & Medicine, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.116412.
Gibson, Mhairi A., Eshetu Gurmu, Regina Chua, Hannelore Van Bavel, and Sarah Myers. 2023. ‘Abandoning Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGMC) Is an Emerging but Costly Parental Investment Strategy in Rural Ethiopia’. Social Science & Medicine, 116170. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.116170.
Van Bavel, Hannelore. 2022. ‘Is Anti-FGM Legislation Cultural Imperialism? Interrogating Kenya’s Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation Act’. Social & Legal Studies, 096466392211188. https://doi.org/10.1177/09646639221118862.
Van Bavel, Hannelore. 2022. ‘Education, Class, and Female Genital Cutting among the Samburu of Northern Kenya: Challenging the Reproduction of the “Ignorant Pastoralist” Narrative in Anticutting Campaigns’. Violence Against Women, 107780122210793. https://doi.org/10.1177/10778012221079376. (impact factor 2.328)
Van Bavel, Hannelore. 2021. “The ‘Loita Rite of Passage’: An Alternative to the Alternative Rite of Passage?” Social Science & Medicine – Qualitative Research in Health 1, http://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmqr.2021.100016. (impact factor SSM 4.634)
Van Bavel, Hannelore. 2020. “At the Intersection of Place, Gender, and Ethnicity: Changes in Female Circumcision among Kenyan Maasai.” Gender, Place & Culture 27 (8): 1071–92. https://doi.org/10.1080/0966369X.2019.1615415. (impact factor 2.032)
Van Bavel, Hannelore, Gily Coene, and Els Leye. 2017. “Changing Practices and Shifting Meanings of Female Genital Cutting among the Maasai of Arusha and Manyara Regions of Tanzania.” Culture, Health & Sexuality 19 (12): 1344–59. https://doi.org/10.1080/13691058.2017.1313449. (impact factor 2.969)
Van Bavel, Hannelore. 2017. “Beyond Exploitation: Towards a Nuanced Understanding of Agency for Adolescent Female Sex Workers – Evidence from Zanzibar and Morogoro.” Culture, Health &Sexuality 19 (1): 76–90. https://doi.org/10.1080/13691058.2016.1207253. (impact factor 2.969)
Book chapters
Van Bavel, Hannelore, Samuel Kimani, and Nina Van Eekert. In press. ‘Contested Boundaries: Debates on the Differential Treatment of Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting and Female Genital Cosmetic Procedures in the Netherlands, Kenya, and Egypt’. In FGM/C in Africa and the Diaspora: Issues, Debates, and Challenges., edited by Lotte Hughes, Mark Lamont, Katy Newell-Jones, and Damaris Parsitau. Boydell & Brewer.
Remmerie, L., Van Bavel, H., and Fernandes, D. 2025. Participatieve methoden binnen onderzoek naar seksuele en reproductieve gezondheid. In: Feministische en queer onderzoeksmethoden in het recht, edited by Pieter Cannoot, Elise Goossens and Marie Spinoy.
Van Bavel, Hannelore. ‘The Contradictory Role of the Protestant Church in Changing Female Genital Cutting among the Maasai: An Ethnographic Exploration’. In Religion and Gender-Based Violence: Global and Local Responses to Harmful Practices, edited by Brenda Bartelink, Chia Longman, and Tamsin Bradley. Routledge Research in Religion and Development. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge, 2022
Reports and policy papers
Pantazis, C., Carver N., Karlsen S., Mogilnicka, M., Van Bavel, H. and Mohamed, A. and Hajinur, H. (2023) Care Poverty: the unmet needs of those living with Female Genital Cutting/Mutilation in Bristol, Bristol Research on Female Genital Modifications: Bristol.
Policy Discussion Paper on “Alternative Rites of Passage: What is their role in FGM/C abandonment?”, 2023, collaboration with UNFPA, Kenya’s Anti-FGM Board, chid Project, and Amref Health International, http://www.bristol.ac.uk/policybristol/policy-briefings/alternative-rites-passage/
A review of best practices in measuring the impact of FGM/C interventions, 2018, report developed as consultant for the NGO Tostan, Dakar, Senegal.
Scoping report of FGM/C in Ethiopia and Sudan, 2018, report developed as consultant for Orchid Project, London, UK.