"Mounira (Maya) Charrad is an award-winning author. She received her Ph.D. from Harvard University and her undergraduate degree from the Sorbonne in Paris. Her research has centered on state formation, colonialism, law, citizenship, kinship and women’s rights. More specifically, she has considered strategies of state building in kin-based societies and how struggles over state power shaped the expansion or curtailment of women's rights. Challenging explanations of politics based on a textual approach to religion, she calls attention instead to social solidarities and where they are grounded (kinship, ethnicity, or associations). She is currently studying women’s associations, secularism, and civil society with a focus on Tunisia. Her work has been translated into French, Arabic, and Chinese, and featured on websites and in the media. Her research has been funded by several grants including the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Mellon Foundation, the American Association of University Women, and the American Institute of Maghribi Studies."