Lila Abu-Lughod facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Lila Abu-Lughod
Born	1952 (age 72–73)
Nationality	American
Citizenship	American
Alma mater	Carleton College (BA, 1974) Harvard University (PhD, 1984)
Occupation	Scholar
Known for	Anthropology, Women's and Gender Studies
Parent(s)	Ibrahim Abu-Lughod (father) Janet L. Abu-Lughod (mother)
Scientific career
Institutions	Williams College Princeton University New York University Columbia University

Lila Abu-Lughod (Arabic: ليلى أبو لغد) was born in 1952. She is an American anthropologist. An anthropologist studies human societies and cultures. She is a professor at Columbia University in New York City.

Lila Abu-Lughod focuses on ethnographic research in the Arab world. This means she studies cultures by living with people and observing their daily lives. Her books explore topics like feelings, poetry, national identity, media, and women's rights.

Early Life and Education

Lila Abu-Lughod's father was Ibrahim Abu-Lughod, a well-known Palestinian scholar. Her mother, Janet L. Abu-Lughod, was an important American sociologist. A sociologist studies how societies work and how people interact.

Lila Abu-Lughod earned her first degree from Carleton College in 1974. She then received her PhD from Harvard University in 1984.

Her Work as an Anthropologist

Studying Cultures in Egypt

Lila Abu-Lughod's work is based on long-term ethnographic research in Egypt. She became interested in Egypt because she spent part of her childhood there. She especially looks at how culture and power are connected. She also studies women's rights in the Middle East. Her research also covers cities, technology, memory, museums, and archives.

Living with the Bedouin People

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Lila Abu-Lughod lived with the Bedouin Awlad 'Ali tribe in Egypt. She stayed with a family for about two years. Her first two books, Veiled Sentiments and Writing Women's Worlds, are based on this experience.

These books share her time living with Bedouin women. She studied their poetry and stories. She found that ghinnawas, which are poetic songs, show how their society works. They especially show how women and men relate to each other.

Teaching at Universities

Lila Abu-Lughod has held many important teaching roles. She is currently a professor at Columbia University. Before that, she taught at New York University, Princeton University, and Williams College. She also worked on projects to bring a more international view to women's studies.

She has served on the advisory boards of important academic journals. These include Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society.

Important Ideas and Contributions

Understanding Muslim Women

Lila Abu-Lughod has greatly contributed to gender studies. Her 2013 book, Do Muslim Women Need Saving?, looks at how Western society often sees Muslim women. This book grew from an article she wrote in 2002.

The book explores how, after 9/11, some people talked about the Middle East and Islam. They often showed Muslim women as needing to be "saved." Abu-Lughod argues that this idea was sometimes used to justify military actions in Muslim countries.

She believes that Muslim women, like all women, should be understood within their own history and culture. She argues against putting all Muslim women into one group. She also highlights the history of resistance by Muslim women from places like Palestine and Egypt.

Her work has been compared to Orientalism by Edward Said. This book discusses how the West often views the East in a simplified way. Do Muslim Women Need Saving? has been translated into several languages.

In a newer book, The Cunning of Gender Violence, she discusses how gender violence is understood globally. She argues that making general rules about gender violence might ignore how different cultures see it. She also talks about "securofeminists." These are feminists who try to achieve their goals using security measures. Lila Abu-Lughod finds this approach concerning.

Work with Museums

In 2023, Lila Abu-Lughod helped create an exhibition. It was called On the Move at the National Museum of Qatar. The exhibition celebrated the lives of nomadic communities. These included people from Qatar, Mongolia, and the Central Sahara.

Because of her deep knowledge of Bedouin communities, she worked with other experts. They thought about how to show cultures and collect objects. This project explored ways of sharing knowledge beyond just writing. The exhibition was a team effort with the National Museum of Mongolia.

Views on the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict

Lila Abu-Lughod supports the Boycott Divestment Sanctions movement. This movement uses boycotts and other actions to pressure Israel. She has written about her views on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. She supports calls for academics to boycott Israeli academic institutions. She has spoken about unfair treatment faced by scholars due to their background or work.

Awards and Honors

Lila Abu-Lughod has received many awards for her work.

• In 2023, she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
• She received a Career Award from the Association of Feminist Anthropology in 2023.
• In 2021, she won the Exemplary Cross Field Scholarship Award.
• She received the Lenfest Distinguished Faculty Award from Columbia University in 2008.
• Her book Writing Women's Worlds received the Victor Turner Prize in 1994.
• She was given an honorary doctorate from Carleton College in 2006.

Key Books

Here are some of Lila Abu-Lughod's important books:

• The Cunning of Gender Violence. (2023)
• On the Move: Reframing Nomadic Pastoralism. (2022)
• Do Muslim Women Need Saving? (2013)
• Nakba: Palestine, 1948, and the Claims of Memory (with Ahmad H. Sa'di, 2007)
• Dramas of Nationhood: The Politics of Television in Egypt (2004)
• Writing Women's Worlds: Bedouin Stories (1993)
• Veiled Sentiments: Honor and Poetry in a Bedouin Society (2000)

Other Contributions

In 2001, Lila Abu-Lughod gave the Lewis Henry Morgan Lecture. This is a very important annual lecture series in anthropology.

She was named a Carnegie Scholar in 2007. This allowed her to research "Do Muslim Women Have Rights?" She has also received research grants from groups like the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Guggenheim Foundation.

See also

In Spanish: Lila Abu-Lughod para niños

• Postcolonialism
• Orientalism