Thera Rasing

Thera Rasing obtained a PhD in Anthropology from Erasmus University Rotterdam. Her main fields of research are gender, religion and SRH in Africa, particularly female initiation rites in Zambia, on which she published extensively. She worked as a researcher at the African Studies Centre Leiden and as a senior lecturer and head of the Gender Studies Department at the University of Zambia (UNZA). She was affiliated as a senior lecturer to several other universities in Zambia and Malawi, and as a researcher to the Zambian Ministry of Community Development and Mother and Child Health (MCDMCH).

Since 2016 she is the Director Research on Gender and SRH at PRIM (Participatory Research and Innovative Management) in Lusaka, Zambia.

Key words: female initiation rites, wedding ceremonies, kitchen parties, rituals, matrilinity, religion, Traditional African Religion, Christianity, urbanisation, globalisation, Copperbelt, Zambia, Bemba.

Recent publications:

2022 Rasing, T. Female blood ties: ideas on menstruation and female initiation rites in the context of purity in Zambia. Storia delle donne, vol. 17, pp. 61-81.

2021 Rasing, T. Female Initiation Rites as part of Gendered Bemba Religion and Culture: Transformations in Women’s Empowerment. ZSSJ Zambian Social Science Journal, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 55-79. Link article ZSSJ volume 7 (2021) no. 2. Pp. 55-79.