Gabriale Payne was born and raised in Denver, Colorado. She obtained her B.A. in History with a minor in Anthropology from the University of Colorado at Denver in 2007. While there, she completed her Honors Thesis, “Kikuyu Women, Political Activism, and Female Circumcision in Kenya, 1929-1960,” which explored the historical relationship between the changing meanings of 'female circumcision' (a.k.a. Female Genital Operations) and women’s grassroots movements among the Kikuyu peoples of colonial Kenya.
After taking a brief hiatus from her academic work, she returned to graduate school at the University of Minnesota in 2011 and is now working to complete her PhD in African History. Her current research project explores the development of modern conceptions of sex and gender, and how they became visible and were articulated within (re)presentations of female genital operations (FGO) from the mid-19th century through to the early post-colonial period in Kenya.
Educational Background
- B.A.: History / Cultural Anthropology, CU Denver, 2007 -
Specialties
- Comparative History of Women, Gender and Sexuality
- Feminist and Critical Sexuality Studies
- East Africa
- World History
- Development Studies and Social Change
- Africa