Professor Barbara Stowasser, former chair of the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies, died Sunday at Sibley Memorial Hospital.

Stowasser, who was also a former director of the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, was noted for her studies of Islam and gender. Her most well-known work, the 1994 book “Women in the Qur’an:Traditions and Interpretation,” analyzed the text of Qur’an for its statements regarding women.

In 2009, Stowasser was named the Sultanate of Oman Professor of Arabic and Islamic Literature in honor of her academic achievements.

According to the Walsh School of Foreign Service, Stowasser’s family plans to to hold a memorial service at Georgetown in the late summer or early fall.

“It it hard to describe just how much we lose with her passing,” Provost James O’Donnell wrote in an email to the campus community Monday. “The many colleagues and students who worked with her are only beginning to reckon with their loss.”