Rate My Professor Mounir Farah

Mounir Farah was Professor Emeritus of Curriculum and Instruction in the College of Education and Health Professions at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, joining the faculty in 1995 and retiring in 2015. He also served as a professor in the King Fahd Center for Middle East Studies. Holding a bachelor's degree from Oklahoma City University, a master's degree from the University of Bridgeport, and a Ph.D. in history from New York University, Farah began his teaching career instructing social studies in Edson, Kansas. His academic interests encompassed curriculum and instruction, particularly in social studies education, world history, economics, and Middle Eastern studies. Farah made substantial contributions to international education, directing a World Bank-funded project from 1993 to 1995 to rewrite twenty textbooks and teachers' guides in history, geography, and civics for the Jordanian Ministry of Education. He advised the Syrian International School in Damascus on curriculum development, led professional delegations to Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Morocco, and drafted memoranda of understanding between the University of Arkansas and ministries of higher education in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Morocco.

A distinguished author, Farah served as senior author on the bestselling textbooks "World History: The Human Experience" (McGraw-Hill), utilized in more than half of Arkansas school districts and nationally for over twenty years, and "Global Insights: People and Cultures," widely adopted nationally. He was general editor of a four-volume series of biographies on world history and authored or co-authored numerous books, articles, and chapters in his fields of expertise. Farah earned the Arkansas Educator of the Year Award in 2000 and received a Senior Fulbright Fellowship for the 2004-2005 academic year to research reform and change in the Syrian education system and lecture at the University of Damascus and Aleppo University. He contributed to professional organizations as a member of the Executive Board of the International Assembly of Social Science Educators and the Arkansas Council for the Social Studies, consulted on more than twenty educational films, and delivered public lectures on topics including Middle Eastern politics and comparative education systems. Through his work, Farah profoundly influenced the preparation of educators with a global perspective.