| Mounira M. Charrad | |
| Birth Date: | August 10, 1942 |
| Birth Place: | Tunisia |
| Nationality: | Tunisian |
| Other Names: | Mounira Maya Charrad |
| Doctoral Advisor: | Ann Swidler |
| Discipline: | Sociology |
| Workplaces: | University of Texas at Austin |
| Doctoral Students: | Chauntelle Tibbals |
Mounira Maya Charrad[1] (born 1942) is a Franco-Tunisian sociologist[2] who serves as associate professor of sociology at the University of Texas at Austin.
She is an author whose work focuses on political sociology, comparative history, gender politics, and the Middle East. Her research has centered on state formation, colonialism, law, citizenship, kinship, and women's rights.[3]
Charrad was born in Tunisia[4] on August 10, 1942. She received an undergraduate degree from the Sorbonne in Paris, France, and a Doctor of Philosophy degree from Harvard University.[5]
Her book States and Women's Rights (2001) considers strategies of state building in kin-based societies and how struggles over state power shaped the expansion or curtailment of women's rights.[6]
Charrad studies conceptions of modernity in legal discourses in the Middle East. Challenging explanations of politics based on a textual approach to religion, she offers instead a focus on social solidarities and where they are grounded (kinship, ethnicity, or other), as for example in her articles "Gender in the Middle East: Islam, State, Agency" and "Central and Local Patrimonialism: State Building in Kin-Based Societies".[7]
Her work has been translated into French and Arabic, and featured on websites including the International Museum of Women[8] and in the media.
Charrad's research has been funded by several grants, including the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Mellon Foundation, the American Association of University Women, and the American Institute of Maghribi Studies.
At the University of Texas at Austin, she is affiliated with the Center for European Studies, the Center for Middle East Studies, the Center for Women's and Gender Studies, the Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice, and the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies. She also holds a courtesy appointment in the Department of Middle East Studies.
Charrad's book States and Women's Rights: The Making of Postcolonial Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco (University of California Press, 2001) won the following awards:
The book is being translated into French, Arabic, and Chinese.
Expanded as:
Revised and reprinted as:
Revised and reprinted in Book: Sadiqi . Fatima . Ennaji . Moha . Women in the Middle East and North Africa: agents of change . 105–113 . . Oxford New York . 2010 . 9780415573214 .
Including: Charrad . Mounira M. . Women's agency across cultures: Conceptualizing strengths and boundaries . Women's Studies International Forum . 33 . 6 . 517–522 . 10.1016/j.wsif.2010.09.004 . November–December 2010 .
Including: Charrad . Mounira M. . Adams . Julia . Introduction: patrimonialism, past and present . The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science . 636 . 1 . 6–15 . 10.1177/0002716211402286 . July 2011 . 220852840 .
Including: Charrad . Mounira M. . Central and local patrimonialism: State-building in kin-based societies . The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science . 636 . 1 . 49–68 . 10.1177/0002716211401825 . July 2011 . 145693904 .