Conferences, cultures and cutting: A review of Girl Summit 2014 and its approach to female genital cutting by Sarah E. Jones and Dr Lisa K. Hartley, Curtin University, Australia 1 The issue of Female Genital Cutting (FGC) has been the site of much academic debate, highlighting the complexity of the subject and its inexorable connection to discourses of culture and agency, women’s rights and group rights, Africa and imperialism (e.g., Boddy; Braun; Esho et al.; Hosken; Johnsdotter and Essén; Kalev; Obiora; Vissandjée et al.; Winterbottom et al.). In July 2014 the subject of FGC took the news headlines again as London hosted the first Girl Summit. Organised by the British Government and UNICEF, Girl Summit 2014 sought to bring together “campaigners, policy-makers and development professionals from around the world” in order to address the issues of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and Child, Early and Forced Marriage (CEFM) (Girl Summit 2014: As It Happened 2). The summit’s agenda was threefold: “Sharing what works”, “[a]greeing on an agenda for change”, and “[e]ngaging people for change” (Cansfield et al. 1). On one hand, it was encouraging to see global media, civil society and political focus on issues pertaining to girls’ and women’s rights. On the other hand, concerns could be raised about the conceptualisation of FGC that Girl Summit employed. In this paper, we argue that there was a distinct lack of reference to the rich and extensive academic debate relating to FGC, demonstrative of the oft present disjunct between academia and activism. Perhaps as a result of this disconnect, we argue that the presentation of FGC at Girl Summit 2014 was characterised by sensational language, questionable claims and a lack of cultural analysis and reflexivity, as evident on United Kingdom (UK) Government web publications. As a result of this (mis)representation of the complex and varied practices of FGC, we argue that Girl Summit 2014 ultimately advocated a feminist praxis uncritical in nature and consequently, limited in effect. To support this argument, this paper reviews the conclusions of feminist, health and human rights theorists and practitioners in their engagement with FGC, highlighting key findings which could have informed more effective praxis at Girl Summit 2014. The accidental casualties of sensational language 2 A key purpose of Girl Summit was to raise consciousness of FGC amongst the general public. In the first instance, it is important to reflect on the use of the term FGC, and not FGM. The World Health Organisation continues to refer to genital cutting as FGM, arguing that the term mutilation “emphasizes the gravity of the act” (Eliminating Female Genital Mutilation 3) and covers a range of stitching, burning and pricking practices. However, in the past ten years there has been an increasing tendency to refer to the myriad of non-therapeutic alterations to female genitalia as Female Genital Cutting rather than Female Genital Mutilation (Johnsdotter Special Issue: Early Career Researchers III [1] Page 1 of 10 Gender Forum: Conferences, cultures and cutting: A review of Girl Summit 2014 and ... 08/03/16 http://www.genderforum.org/issues/special-issue-early-career-researchers-iii/conference...