Lidwien Kapteijns

Lidwien Kapteijns is Kendall-Hodder Professor of History at Wellesley College, where she teaches African and Middle Eastern history. Before turning to Somali studies, she worked in the Sudan and wrote about late pre-colonial Sudanese history. Her Women’s Voices in a Man’s World (with Maryan Omar Ali, 1999) analyzes notions of proper womanhood in Somali folklore texts and post-independence popular songs. Clan Cleansing in Somalia: The Ruinous Legacy of 1991 (2013) deals with Somali civil war violence in text and context. With Alessandra Vianello and Mohamed Kassim she co-edited Stringing Coral Beads: The Religious Poetry of Brava c. 1890-1975 (2018).