PHILIP HITTI, BRAZIL, AND THE DIASPORIC HISTORIES OF AREA STUDIES

This article rethinks area studies through the diasporic histories of influential graduates of the Syrian Protestant College. My focus is on Philip Hitti and his ties with fellow alumni who migrated to the Brazilian city of São Paulo. Examining his first visit to Brazil in 1925, letter exchanges thr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of Middle East studies 2014-08, Vol.46 (3), p.451-471
Main Author: Karam, John Tofik
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Arabs
Area Studies
Brazil
Cities
College graduates
Colleges
Cultural instruction
Diaspora
Graduates
Hitti, Philip
Language history
Linguistics
Loanwords
Middle East
Middle Eastern studies
Migration
Muslims
Portugal
Protestants
Said, Edward
Sociocultural factors
Syria
Transnational Formations
U.S.A
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Summary:This article rethinks area studies through the diasporic histories of influential graduates of the Syrian Protestant College. My focus is on Philip Hitti and his ties with fellow alumni who migrated to the Brazilian city of São Paulo. Examining his first visit to Brazil in 1925, letter exchanges through the 1940s, and a second trip in 1951, I ask how Hitti and São Paulo-based alumni sought to establish an Arab studies program in Brazil. In borrowing a template for studying the Middle East, Hitti and colleagues imbued it with a widespread sentiment that Arab and Muslim legacies of the Iberian peninsula had shaped Portugal, and thus Brazil's historical and linguistic formation. They relocated a model of area studies but refitted its content. In revealing how the institution of area studies moved across and merged with varied sociocultural settings, these diasporic histories provincialize the U.S. model for knowing the Middle East.
ISSN:0020-7438
1471-6380
DOI:10.1017/S0020743814000543