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 (born 1952) is a famous American anthropologist. An anthropologist is a person who studies human societies and cultures. She is a professor at Columbia University in New York City.

Abu-Lughod is an expert in the cultures of the Arab world. She has written seven books about topics like poetry, television, and the lives of women in the Middle East. Her work helps people understand different cultures and challenges common stereotypes.

Early Life and Education

Lila Abu-Lughod was born on October 21, 1952. Her father, Ibrahim Abu-Lughod, was a well-known Palestinian professor. Her mother, Janet Abu-Lughod, was a leading Jewish American professor who studied cities. Growing up with parents who were both important scholars shaped her future.

After high school, Abu-Lughod attended Carleton College and graduated in 1974. She then went to Harvard University, where she earned her PhD in Social Anthropology in 1984.

Career and Research

Abu-Lughod's work is based on ethnographic research, which means she lives with the people she studies to understand their daily lives. She spent much of her childhood in Egypt, which sparked her interest in the region. She studies how culture, power, and gender affect people's lives.

Living with the Bedouin

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Abu-Lughod lived with the Bedouin Awlad 'Ali community in Egypt for two years. She stayed in the home of the community's leader and became close with his family.

Her first two books, Veiled Sentiments and Writing Women's Worlds, are based on this experience. She wrote about the lives of the Bedouin women and studied their poetry and stories. She was especially interested in their songs, called ghinnawas. These short poems, similar to haiku, expressed feelings about life and relationships that couldn't always be said out loud.

Questioning Stereotypes

One of Abu-Lughod's most famous works is her book Do Muslim Women Need Saving?. In this book, she examines how Western countries often see Muslim women as needing to be rescued. She argues that this idea has been used to justify military action in the Middle East.

Abu-Lughod explains that Muslim women are not all the same. Like women everywhere, their lives are shaped by their own history and culture. She encourages people to listen to Muslim women's own stories and understand their lives from their point of view. Her work on this topic has been compared to Edward Said's important book Orientalism.

Museum Work

In 2023, Abu-Lughod helped create a museum exhibition called On the Move at the National Museum of Qatar. The exhibit celebrated the lives of nomadic communities from Qatar, Mongolia, and the Central Sahara. Using her knowledge of Bedouin communities, she worked with other experts to show how these groups live, instead of just writing about them.

Activism and Views

Abu-Lughod is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. This movement encourages a boycott of Israeli academic institutions as a form of protest. She has written about why she believes this is an important way to support Palestinians.

She also speaks about the challenges Palestinian women face. She highlights the work of other scholars who have written about the difficult experiences of women during times of conflict.

Major Books

Lila Abu-Lughod has written and edited many important books. Here are some of her most well-known works:

• Veiled Sentiments: Honor and Poetry in a Bedouin Society (2000)
• Writing Women's Worlds: Bedouin Stories (1993)
• Dramas of Nationhood: The Politics of Television in Egypt (2004)
• Nakba: Palestine, 1948, and the Claims of Memory (2007)
• Do Muslim Women Need Saving? (2013)

Awards and Honors

Lila Abu-Lughod has received many awards for her work. These awards recognize her important contributions to anthropology and women's studies.

• She received the Stirling Award for her work on psychological anthropology.
• Her book Writing Women's Worlds won the Victor Turner Prize.
• In 2006, she was given an honorary doctorate from Carleton College.
• In 2023, she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a high honor for scholars.

See also

In Spanish: Lila Abu-Lughod para niños

• Postcolonialism
• Subaltern
• Orientalism
• Imagined geographies