EVELYNE ACCAD (1943- )
Evelyne Accad (1943- ) is a Lebanese-American Professor Emerita in French Comparative Literature at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. While a professor in the French and Comparative Literature at the University of Illinois (1988-2004), Accad was an adjunct professor in the following programs: African Studies Center, Women and Gender in Global Perspectives, the Women's Studies Center, the Middle East Studies, and the Campus honors program. In addition to her role as an educator, Accad is a poet, singer and songwriter, and is known for her research and contribution to Arab feminist writing, gender, anti-war, and non-violent alternatives. Accad was one of the first scholars and feminists to speak out against genital mutilation and other crimes against women. In addition, her comparative analysis of female characters in the works of North African novelists shed light on pervasive inequalities between genders in Northern Africa.
Detailed Biography:
Evelyne Accad is a Lebanese-American Professor Emerita in French Comparative Literature at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. While a professor in the French and Comparative Literature at the University of Illinois (1988-2004), Accad was an adjunct professor in the following programs: African Studies Center, Women and Gender in Global Perspectives, the Women's Studies Center, the Middle East Studies, and the Campus honors program. In addition to her role as an educator, Accad is a poet, singer and songwriter, and is known for her research and contribution to Arab feminist writing, gender, anti-war, and non-violent alternatives. Accad was one of the first scholars and feminists to speak out against genital mutilation and other crimes against women. In addition, her comparative analysis of female characters in the works of North African novelists shed light on pervasive inequalities between genders in Northern Africa.
Evelyne Accad was born in Beirut, Lebanon in 1943 and was the child of a Swiss mother and Egypto-Lebanese father. She received her Associate's Degree in English from Beirut College for Women in Beirut, Lebanon in 1965, her Bachelor's Degree in English from Anderson College in 1967, her Master's Degree in French from Ball State University in 1968, and her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Indiana University in 1973. In 1965, at age 22, Accad came to the United States in order to pursue her studies and escape Lebanon's rigid gender traditions. Her studies in the United States also allowed her to evade an arranged marriage, something which her sister, Jacqueline Hajjar, was not able to escape. After completing her Bachelor's Degree in 1967, Accad returned to Lebanon and taught French and English language and literature at the International College in Beirut until 1971, when she returned to the U.S. to work on her Ph.D.
In 1974, Accad came to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and started as an Assistant Professor in French and Comparative Literature (1974-1979). She was then promoted to Associate Professor (1979-1988) and eventually Professor (1988-2004) in the same department. She then served as a faculty member in each of the following programs: the African Studies Program, Women's Studies Center, Women and Gender in Global Perspectives, Comparative Literature Program, Middle East Studies Program, and Campus Honors Program (1988-2004).
Throughout her professional career, Evelyne Accad received many awards for her research and service including, most recently, the Prix International de Poesie Emmanuel Robles (2006), the International Writer of the Year Award from IBC Cambridge (2003), and the Fulbright Research and Teaching Award for Lebanon (2002). Accad is a prolific writer and has published twelve books, including: The Excised, Sexuality and War: Literary Masks in the Middle East, and The Veil of Shame: The Role of Women in the Modern Fiction of North Africa and the Arab World; more than 57 journal articles; and nearly 60 book reviews.
In 1994, Accad was diagnosed with breast cancer and wrote extensively on her battle through treatment and chemotherapy. Her personal experiences with cancer became the inspiration for her book The Wounded Breast: Intimate Journeys Through Cancer, a book that explored how people, particularly women, deal with the after-effects of cancer treatment and their right to guard their cancer from the public or not. Because her partner, Paul Vielle, suffered and died of cancer, she also presented on issues related to cancer over the years.
Sources:
http://www.frit.illinois.edu/people/e-accad
http://litgloss.buffalo.edu/accad/about.shtml
http://www.editions-harmattan.fr/minisites/index.asp?no=25
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