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.[1] Malti-Douglas has written several books, including The Star Report Disrobed (2000). She received a National Humanities Medal in 2015.[2]

Biography

Malti-Douglas grew up in Deir el-Qamar, where her father was a physician.[3] Her primary education took place at French Catholic boarding schools and at age 12, she emigrated to the United States.[3] She learned to become fluent in English and when she attended Cornell University, she started taking Semitic languages.[3] 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.[3]

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.[4] In 2004, she was inducted into the American Philosophical Society.[4] Malti-Douglas was awarded a National Humanities Medal in 2015.[5]

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.[4]

Work

Malti-Douglas studied Muslim literary texts from medieval to modern times and wrote about her findings in Women and Gender in Islam (1991).[6] She describes how women's bodies are increasingly seen as a threat in this literature.[6] Malti-Douglas wrote the second English language examination of the work of Nawal El Saadawi in 1995.[7] 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.[7] Men, Women and God(s) is also about showing that El Saadawi's work is literature, not just "polemics," as it is often labeled.[8]

In The Star Report Disrobed (2000), Malti-Douglas deconstructs the issues surrounding the Bill Clinton sex scandal from a feminist perspective.[9] The California Law Review called The Star Report Disrobed an "insightful and peppy book."[10] 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."[10] 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.[11]

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.[12] Each of the women she studies have rejected the ideas of the "secular West."[13] Her book examines how men impact and guide the daily lives and even spiritual dreams of Muslim women.[12]

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.[14] 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.[15]

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. 1 2 3 4 "Fedwa Malti-Douglas". National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). Archived from the original on 22 December 2018. Retrieved 2018-12-31.
  4. 1 2 3 "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. 1 2 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. 1 2 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. 1 2 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. 1 2 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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