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Fedwa Malti-Douglas

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Lebanese-American professor and writer (born 1946)
Fedwa Malti-Douglas
Born1946
Lebanon
NationalityLebanese-American
Occupation(s)professor and writer

Fedwa Malti-Douglas (born 1946) is a Lebanese-American professor and writer. She is a professor emeritus at Indiana University Bloomington. Malti-Douglas has written several books, including The Starr Report Disrobed (2000). She received a National Humanities Medal in 2015.

Biography

Malti-Douglas grew up in Deir el-Qamar, where her father was a physician. Her primary education took place at French Catholic boarding schools and at age 12, she emigrated to the United States. She learned to become fluent in English and when she attended Cornell University, she started taking Semitic languages. Malti-Douglas attended the University of California, Los Angeles and the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales where she did her graduate work in Arabic.

Malti-Douglas received a 1997 Kuwait Prize for Arts and Letters and earned the Distinguished Scholar Award from the Dean of Women's Affairs at Indiana University Bloomington in 1998. In 2004, she was inducted into the American Philosophical Society. Malti-Douglas was awarded a National Humanities Medal in 2015.

Malti-Douglas is a professor emeritus at Indiana University Bloomington and the Martha C. Kraft Professor of Humanities in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Work

Malti-Douglas studied Muslim literary texts from medieval to modern times and wrote about her findings in Woman's Body, Woman's Word: Gender and Discourse in Arabo-Islamic Writing (1991). She describes how women's bodies are increasingly seen as a threat in this literature. Malti-Douglas wrote the second English language examination of the work of Nawal El Saadawi in 1995. The work, Men Women and God(s): Nawal El Saadawi and Arab Feminist Poetics is a "penetrating and admiring analysis of El Saadawi's writing," according to Library Journal. Men, Women and God(s) is also about showing that El Saadawi's work is literature, not just "polemics," as it is often labeled.

In The Starr Report Disrobed (2000), Malti-Douglas deconstructs the issues surrounding the Bill Clinton sex scandal from a feminist perspective. The California Law Review called The Starr Report Disrobed an "insightful and peppy book." The journal also felt that the book highlighted another issue: legal document are no longer just for lawyers and jurists, but have become "salable media content and, ultimately, popular cultural artifacts." The New York Times writes that Malti-Douglas deals with the differences between the facts in the case and the conclusions drawn by prosecutor, Kenneth Starr.

In Medicines of the Soul: Female Bodies and Sacred Geographies in a Transnational Islam (2001), Malti-Douglas gives an analysis of three autobiographies belonging to Muslim women who became more religious. Each of the women she studies have rejected the ideas of the "secular West." Her book examines how men impact and guide the daily lives and even spiritual dreams of Muslim women.

In 2008, Malti-Douglas edited the comprehensive reference book, The Encyclopedia of Sex and Gender, which cover topics about sex and gender through the fields of psychology, sociology, biology, religion and history. Booklist wrote that "Bringing together a remarkable array of material, this set, which appears to be without competition, will no doubt succeed in providing information but also in creating dialogue around issues of sex and gender.

References

  1. "Lebanese American Fedwa Malti-Douglas to receive National Humanities Medal from President Obama". Arab America. 2015-09-04. Retrieved 2020-12-09.
  2. "Fedwa Malti-Douglas". The National Endowment for the Humanities. Retrieved 2020-12-09.
  3. ^ "Fedwa Malti-Douglas". National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). Archived from the original on 22 December 2018. Retrieved 2018-12-31.
  4. ^ "Fedwa Malti-Douglas". Department of Gender Studies. Archived from the original on 31 December 2018. Retrieved 2018-12-31.
  5. Superville, Darlene (6 September 2015). "Obama to Award Arts Medals to Sally Field, Stephen King". The Herald-Palladium. Retrieved 2018-12-31 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ Peirce, Leslie (2009). "AHR Forum: Writing Histories of Sexuality in the Middle East". American Historical Review. 114 (5): 1325–1339. doi:10.1086/ahr.114.5.1325. PMID 20425924.
  7. ^ Miller, Beverly (September 1995). "Men, Women, and God(s): Nawal El Saadawi and Arab Feminist Poetics". Library Journal. 120 (14): 195 – via EBSCOhost.
  8. Talahite, Anissa (November 1997). "Book Reviews". Journal of Gender Studies. 6 (3): 331 – via EBSCOhost.
  9. Thomas, Bill (20 August 2000). "Feminists Dissect the Clinton Sex Scandal". Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved 2018-12-30 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ^ Filler, Daniel M. (2002). "From Law to Content in the New Media Marketplace". California Law Review. 90 (5): 1739–1774. doi:10.2307/3481368. JSTOR 3481368.
  11. Boyer, Allen D. (22 October 2000). "The Starr Report Disrobed". The New York Times. Retrieved 2018-12-31.
  12. ^ Shissler, A. Holly (September 2005). "Women's Human Rights and Islam: A Study of Three Attempts at Accommodation/Women in Islam: The Western Experience/Medicines of the Soul: Female Bodies and Sacred Geographies in a Transnational Islam". Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society. 31 (1): 241–247. doi:10.1086/432745. S2CID 225088986.
  13. Jacobs, Janet L. (2003-12-01). "Medicines of the Soul: Female Bodies and Sacred Geographies in a Transnational Islam, by Fewa Malti-Douglas". Sociology of Religion. 64 (4): 528–530. doi:10.2307/3712342. ISSN 1069-4404. JSTOR 3712342.
  14. Sutton, Sarah (2008). "Encyclopedia of Sex and Gender". Library Journal. 113 (5): 89 – via EBSCOhost.
  15. Watstein, Sarah (April 2008). "Encyclopedia of Sex and Gender". Booklist. 104 (16): 76 – via EBSCOhost.
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