HAERI, Niloofar

PERSONAL:

Female.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Johns Hopkins University, Department of Anthropology, 3400 North Charles St., Baltimore, MD 21218. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, professor of anthropology. Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University, Bunting fellow, 1999-2000. American University in Cairo, visiting research scholar.

AWARDS, HONORS:

National Science Foundation grant.

WRITINGS:

The Sociolinguistic Market of Cairo: Gender, Class, and Education, Kegan Paul International (New York, NY), 1996.

(Compiler, with Kirk Belnap) Structuralist Studies in Arabic Linguistics: Charles A Ferguson's Papers, 1954-1994, E. J. Brill (New York, NY), 1997.

(Editor, with A. Benamoun and M. Eid) New Perspectives in Arabic Linguistics, John Benjamin Publishers (Philadelphia, PA), 1998.

Sacred Language, Ordinary People: Dilemmas of Culture and Politics in Egypt, Palgrave Macmillan (New York, NY), 2003.

Contributor to books and periodicals, including Perspectives on Arabic Linguistics, Transeuropeennes, Annual Review of Anthropology, Current Anthropology, Toward a Social Science of Language, New York Times, and Manchester Guardian.

SIDELIGHTS:

A professor in the anthropology department at Johns Hopkins University, Niloofar Haeri focuses on questions of gender in language, sociolinguistics, and the political economy of language in her research. Her time as a visiting professor at the American University in Cairo and a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) led to linguistic anthropological research in Egypt, which in turn led to two titles by Haeri: The Sociolinguistic Market of Cairo: Gender, Class, and Education, and the 2003 work Sacred Language, Ordinary People: Dilemmas of Culture and Politics in Egypt.

In her 1996 book, The Sociolinguistic Market of Cairo, Haeri "argues that the choices men and women make in speech cannot be generalized to all cultures, and especially to those in the Middle East," according to Lisa Mastny writing in the Johns Hopkins Gazette Online. Using Egypt as her example, Haeri examines the differences in use in the two main Arabic languages of that country: classical Arabic, used in writing, religion, and government, and Egyptian Arabic, a spoken language that is less official. Employing an interview technique with almost ninety subjects throughout Cairo, Haeri found innovations in language that were led by women. She also found gender differences in the use of both languages, with women generally using classical Arabic less than men. Atiqa Hachimi, reviewing the work in Arab Studies Quarterly,wrote that "Haeri's lengthy discussions of styles, standards and variation presents some valuable new perspectives on outstanding questions in the field."

Haeri used her NSF grant to continue linguistic researches in Cairo, resulting in Sacred Language, Ordinary People, a book about the relations between language and modernity. The book is an attempt to understand the political and cultural ramifications of using classical Arabic, a sacred language, as the language of the state, public education, and of all that is written. Katherine E. Hoffman, writing in the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, felt that "there is plenty of detail here for the linguistic anthropologist or Arabist, yet enough generality for a broader audience." Hoffman went on to note that the "text will make a useful addition to undergraduate and graduate courses in language and culture, Middle East ethnography, religion, nationalism, and state-society relations." Writing in H-Gender MidEast, H-Net Reviews, Clarissa C. Burt also had praise for Haeri's work, noting that "this fascinating little book describes in some detail the social and power structures related to what has often been termed Arabic diglossia [two tongues] in contemporary Egypt." Burt concluded that Sacred Language, Ordinary People "is a very informative and enjoyable read which will do much to prepare students and scholars for the central importance of Arabic language and language policies to the study of contemporary Arab societies."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Arab Studies Quarterly, summer, 2000, Atiqa Hachimi, review of The Sociolinguistic Market in Cairo: Gender, Class, and Education, p. 109.

Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, June, 2004, Katherine E. Hoffman, review of Sacred Language, Ordinary People: Dilemmas of Culture and Politics in Egypt, p. 464.

Middle East Journal, autumn, 2003, review of Sacred Language, Ordinary People, p. 699.

ONLINE

H-Gender-MidEast, H-Net Reviews,http://www.h-net.msu.edu/ (November, 2003), Clarissa C. Burt, review of Sacred Language, Ordinary People.

Johns Hopkins Gazette Online,http://www.jhu.edu/gazette/ (March 6, 1995), Lisa Mastny, "New Book Explores Way Women of Cairo Utilize Language."

Johns Hopkins University Web site,http://www.jhu.edu/ (February 25, 2003), Amy Cowles, "Johns Hopkins Professor Available to Comment on the Cultures and Politics of the Arab World through an Analysis of the Language Situation."