Ellen Gruenbaum

Ellen Gruenbaum is an American anthropologist. A specialist in researching medical practices that are based on a society's culture. Her doctoral thesis was "Health services, health, and development in Sudan : the impact of the Gezira irrigated scheme".

Career

Gruenbaum was a professor and chair of the Anthropology Department at Purdue University. She has served as a professor in the department of anthropology, director of the Women's Studies Program and dean of the College of Social Sciences at California State University, Fresno. She has worked at California State University, San Bernardino, University of Wisconsin in Manitowoc, and the University of Khartoum, Sudan. Since August 2008 she has been department head of anthropology at Purdue. She teaches cultural anthropology coursed that cover religion, gender, health, and post-colonial situations in Africa and the Middle East. She also conducted research in Sierra Leone between 2007 and 2008. Gruenbaum's research focuses on practices relating to female genital cutting (circumcision), women's health in rural African and Middle Eastern contexts, and child protection and human rights movements.

She has written several works, including The Female Circumcision Controversy: An Anthropological Perspective, A Study of Social Services in Gezira Province, A Movement Against Clitoridectomy and Infibulation in Sudan, Nuer Women in Southern Sudan, and Development Schemes, Cultural Debates, and Rural Women's Health in Sudan.

She served as the secretary of the Society for Medical Anthropology from 2006 until 2009 and is on the editorial advisory board of the Journal of Middle East Women's Studies. Gruenbaum considers her greatest achievement in her career to be working with UNICEF in 2004, when she was able to conduct research and advocate social marketing for the involvement of girls in female genital cutting and circumcision. She also worked as a research consultant for CARE studying traditional health practices.

Selected bibliography Books Gruenbaum is best known for her book The Female Circumcision Controversy. This book presents an account of the female circumcision controversy in parts of Africa and the Middle East.

Journal articles Gruenbaum has also written a number of articles that reflect her work in Sudan, including:

Working papers