Swarthmore College’s Farha Ghannam Honored by the American Anthropological Association

Farha Ghannam, the Eugene Lang Research Professor of Anthropology at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, recently received the American Anthropological Association’s 2022 Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching in Anthropology. The award is given to one individual each year who has impacted the discipline of anthropology through outstanding teaching and inspiring their students.

“I am humbled and delighted to receive this wonderful recognition. To have the privilege to teach amazing students like ours is an honor in and by itself, but to know that my students and colleagues appreciate my pedagogy and courses is the true honor,” said Professor Ghannam. “I am particularly excited to know that my courses and mentoring helped my students appreciate the value of anthropology in understanding issues that are significant to them. I am so grateful for the students, alums, and colleagues who supported my nomination for this award.”

Dr. Ghannam’s areas of expertise include anthropological theories, globalization, urban life, embodiment and gender, food and taste, and class politics in the Middle East. She is the author of the books Live and Die Like a Man: Gender Dynamics in Urban Egypt (Stanford University Press, 2013) and Remaking the Modern: Space, Relocation, and the Politics of Identity in a Global Cairo (University of California Press, 2002).

Professor Ghannam holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism and mass communication and a master’s degree in social anthropology from Yarmouk University in Jordan. She earned a Ph.D. in social anthropology at the University of Texas at Austin.