 In fall 2013, Barakat was appointed the first Arabic Scholar in Residence at the University of Texas at Austin Middle Eastern Studies Program.Barakat's first work "Hajar al-Dahik" ("The Stone of Laughter"), which is the first Arabic work to have a homosexual man as its main character, won the Al-Naqid prize.Her third novel, "Harit al-miyah" ("The Tiller of Waters"), won the 2001 Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature.