Dr. Mounira Charrad

Biography

Mounira M. Charrad is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Texas at Austin. Her research focuses on state formation, colonialism, law, citizenship, kinship, and women's rights. She specifically considers the strategies of state building in kin-based societies and how struggles for state power have shaped the expansion and curtailment of women's rights. Her current studies examine conceptions of modernity and legal discourses in the Middle East, challenging political explanations through a textual approach to religion and instead focusing on social solidarities, including kinship and ethnicity. Charrad's work has been published in both French and English and addresses critical issues such as Islamic law, citizenship, and gender rights in the context of the Middle East and North Africa. She has served on various editorial boards and has held faculty positions at prestigious institutions like Harvard and Brown University. Her notable publication, "States Women's Rights: Making Postcolonial Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco," won the 2002 Distinguished Book Award from the American Sociological Association. Charrad has received numerous grants and awards throughout her career, underscoring her impactful contributions to sociology and gender studies.

Research Interests