Arab American Journalist and Civil Rights Attorney Alia Malek to get this year's $50,000 Hiett Prize
PHOTO: Alia Malek worked as a civil rights attorney in Washington and the Middle East before embarking on a journalism career.
The Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture will present the 2016 Hiett Prize in the Humanities to journalist and civil rights attorneyAlia Malek at a Nov. 9 luncheon at the Ritz-Carlton Dallas.
The $50,000 award honors an individual whose humanitarian work shows great promise. Philanthropist Kim Hiett Jordan founded the annual prize with the institute in 2005.
Born in Baltimore to Syrian immigrants, Malek worked as a civil rights attorney in Washington and the Middle East before embarking on a journalism career focused on the people of war-torn Syria, refugees and migrants.
In addition, Malek illuminated Arab-American challenges and experiences in her book, A Country Called Amreeka: U.S. History Re-told Through Arab American Lives. Another nonfiction narrative, The Home That Was Our Country: A Memoir of Syria, is due in February.
“Through her work and writing, Alia tells the stories of the people who occupy our headlines but are too often denied voices of their own,” said Dallas Institute executive director J. Larry Allums. “Most importantly, she succeeds at … bridging cultural and societal differences while challenging how we think about identity and belonging in an age in which cultural and even geographical boundaries are growing ever more fluid.”
Malek will speak at the luncheon, which is chaired byAnn Drumm, Kathy Herring and Jaina Sanga with honorary chair Betty Regard.