Dr. Lila Abu-Lughod, the Joseph L. Buttenwieser Professor of Social Science in Anthropology at Columbia University, will deliver the 14th annual Maryse and Ramzy Mikhail Memorial Lecture this weekend.

The free, public event will take place Sunday, Oct. 12, at 3:30 p.m. in the Driscoll Alumni Center Auditorium at The University of Toledo.

Abu-Lughod will reflect on the passionate and polarized response to her attempt to intervene in debates about the “Muslimwoman” and her rights through her recent book, Do Muslim Women Need Saving?

She is a leading voice in debates about gender, Islam and global policy. Abu-Lughod’s books and publications have been translated into more than a dozen languages. Her early work was on emotion, poetry and gender ideology in a Bedouin community in Egypt.

Interests in gender in the Arab world and in postcolonial theory led Abu-Lughod to some work on the history and contemporary politics of Middle Eastern feminisms. She returned to the study of popular culture in ethnographic work on Egyptian television soap operas as they relate to national pedagogy, class politics, religious and gender identity, and modern subjectivities.

The Mikhail Lecture is made possible through the Maryse and Ramzy Mikhail Endowment Fund, established in 2000 by the Mikhail family.

“The purpose of the Mikhail Fund is to support an annual lecture dealing with Arab culture, literature, history, politics, economics or other broadly defined aspects of life in the Middle East,” said Dr. Jamie Barlowe, dean of the UT College of Languages, Literature and Social Sciences. “The college is very excited about this year’s program as Dr. Abu-Lughod will address timely and important issues about human rights and the rights of Muslim women, as well as about anthropology’s role in political debates.”

Media Coverage
The Blade (Oct. 11, 2014)

Tags: College of Languages Literature and Social Sciences