Asmaa Shehata, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Arabic

Asmaa Shehata is an Assistant Professor of Arabic in the Department of Modern Languages at the University of Mississippi. She earned her degrees in Linguistics from Ohio University (M.A.) and the University Utah (Ph.D.). More recently, she received her M.A. in Religious Studies with specialization in Gender Studies from the University of Ottawa. Her research interests include second language phonology with particular focus on cross-language speech perception and production. Her book, Women’s Rights in Islam: A Critique of Nawal El Saadawi’s Writing, is forthcoming and explores the Egyptian feminist scholar’s arguments within an Islamic framework regarding gender-specific verses of the Qur'an.

Gender Studies -Related Research Interests:  Gender and language, feminist exegesis of the Qur'an, and women’s rights and religious beliefs