Dr. Naima Boussofara Omar, a graduate of the universities of Tunis, Exeter (UK), and Austin at Texas, is an associate professor of Arabic Studies. She received her Ph.D in applied linguistics but she also specializes in sociolinguistics. She teaches courses on Arabic language, Arab cultures and societies. She has had teaching experiences at Cornell College in Iowa, and at the universities of Tunis, and Texas at Austin. Dr. Omar has published in Journal of Language and Politics, Perspectives on Arabic Linguistics, Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics, Al'Arabiyya, Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, and Zeitschrift fur arabische linguistic/Jornal of Arabic Linguistics. Her current research is on the intersection between linguistic choices and linguistic ideologies in political and media discourse of diglossic and bilingual Arabic-speaking communities. She is currently working on a textbook,"Let's Learn Tunisian Arabic", and a book manuscript, "Two Presidents, Two Voices, One People." Dr. Omar is the recipient of the American Institute for Maghreb Studies research grant and the Big XII Fellowship. She serves as the Language Coordinator of the Department and directs the KU Arabic Language Summer Institute at Al Akhawan University in Morocco. Dr. Omar is a member of the Middle Eastern Studies Association, the Arabic Linguistics Society, the American Institute for Maghreb Studies and the American Association of Teachers of Arabic.
