Nimat Hafez Barazangi papers

Nimat Hafez Barazangi was born in Damascus, Syria, in 1943. She obtained her BA in 1967 from Damascus University, majoring in philosophy and Islamic ethics. In 1968 she was granted an employment from Columbia University, New York City, where she was able to study English as a Second Language, and in 1972 obtained her MA in educational psychology and cognitive development from Columbia Teachers College. In 1988 she obtained her Ph.D. degree from Cornell University, majoring in curriculum and instruction and Arabic and Islamic studies. During graduate studies at Cornell she planned and participated in numerous research projects collecting psycholinguistics data among 2-3 year-old Syrian children learning Arabic, and intercultural-interreligious data among Muslim families in North America. In 1990-1991 Nimat joined the Cornell Education Department as a research fellow and also taught at Ithaca College. In 1991 she joined the Woman's Studies Program at Cornell also as a research fellow until her retirement in 2013, but remains active as a university-at-large research fellow. Dr. Barazangi's research focused on self-identity of Muslim women and reinterpreting the Qur`an, the only primary text of Islam, to affirm gender justice in Islam in contrast to the biased interpretations that are being used in Muslim societies for the past fourteen centuries. These studies for a period of about 30 years resulted in publishing three books concerning the concept of justice in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, the Qur`an, and the Hadith (the traditions attributed to Prophet Muhammad). Through a three-year Fulbright Scholarship, she also developed a computerized Arabic curriculum in collaboration with scientists at Damascus Higher Institute of Applied Sciences. Some of her accomplished research was performed in collaboration with grassroots Muslim women. In addition, she initiated and participated in the development and teaching of Participatory Action Research ethical evaluation in collaboration with Davydd Greenwood and the Cornell University Participatory Action Research Network (CPARN).