People Directory

Farah Combs is the Honors Program Director and Senior Lecturer in Arabic and Program Coordinator. She is an immigrant and the daughter of Palestinian refugees. She is a Palestinian, but was born and raised in Kuwait as a “Without”. The “Withouts” are a group of people who do not have an identity of belonging to a country, a homeland. Her identity/ lack of identity is the primary reason to why she immigrated to America as a young adult. Not knowing the language or the culture in America, she was able to persevere and push through to build an identity.
After receiving her bachelor’s and a master’s degrees, she was generously mentored by Professor Mahdi Alosh, who helped her incorporate best practices in Arabic instructions, provided the opportunity to edit his well-regarded Yale University Press Arabic textbook, and recommended her as an instructor at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Farah Combs is a certified Arabic language proficiency tester for the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Language (ACTFL).
She currently teaches all levels of Arabic language course at PFW and International Communications.