Janet Abu-Lughod

Janet Lippman Abu-Lughod (August 3, 1928 – December 14, 2013) was an American sociologist who made major contributions to world-systems theory and urban sociology.

Early life Raised in Newark, New Jersey, United States, she attended Weequahic High School, where she was influenced by the works of Lewis Mumford about urbanization.

Academia The 13th century world-system. Map based on Janet Abu-Lughod's work. Janet Abu-Lughod held graduate degrees from the University of Chicago and University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her teaching career began at the University of Illinois, took her to the American University in Cairo, Smith College, and Northwestern University, where she taught for twenty years and directed several urban studies programmes. In 1950–1952 Abu-Lughod was a director of research for the American Society of Planning Officials, in 1954–1957 – research associate at the University of Pennsylvania, consultant and author for the American Council to Improve Our Neighborhoods. In 1987 she accepted a professorship in sociology and historical studies at the Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research, from which she retired as professor emerita in 1998. Upon retirement she held visiting short-term teaching appointments at Bosphorous University in Istanbul and on the International Honors Program at the University of Cairo. Abu-Lughod received over a dozen prestigious national government fellowships and grants to research in the areas of demography, urban sociology, urban planning, economic and social development, world systems, and urbanization in the United States, the Middle East and the Third World.

Abu-Lughod in her works approaches the social and economic development of global cities with the commitment to seeing and acting on possibilities for constructive social change. The span of her works goes from micro-level studies of territoriality and social change, to the analysis of the diffusion of global cities in the Western and Arab world, to historical studies of medieval cities. and Race, Space, and Riots in Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles.

She was a member of the Editorial Board for Journal of World-Systems Research.

Personal life She was married in 1951–1991 to Ibrahim Abu-Lughod. They had four children; Lila, Mariam, Deena, and Jawad. Janet's family background is Jewish. She died aged 85 in New York City on December 14, 2013.

Works