Area Studies and Multicultural Imperialism: THE PROJECT OF DECOLONIZING KNOWLEDGE

• Published in: Social text 2007-04, Vol.25 (1), p.41-62
• Main Author: Schueller, Malini Johar
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Cultural Pluralism; Cultural Studies; Decolonization; Globalization and Neoliberalism; Imperialism; Knowledge; Labor; National Security; Pedagogy and Higher Education; Social Science Research; Sociology; United States of America
• ISSN: 0164-2472; 1527-1951
• DOI: 10.1215/01642472-2006-016

In the name of post-9/11 security, a variety of right-wing organizations have heaped charges of 'bias' & 'terrorist' sympathies on Middle East studies professors at institutions across the US. Further, in 2003 the US House Subcommittee on Select Education authorized the creation of an advisory board to oversee curricula of area studies centers receiving federal funding, stating that curricula "needed to better reflect the needs of national security." It is argued that academic practices in US universities, particularly in the humanities & social science, cannot be understood without acknowledging their relationship to imperialism & neocolonialism. Colonial difference, at one time way "out there," is now all over. The US university is a space of colonial difference, a place where the decolonizing of knowledge is taking place. Area studies has always been linked to national interests, because what is relevant to the nation is equally relevant, for very practical reasons, to students & researchers. By the 1960s, area studies had been recruited to become the policy equivalent of what Edward Said ascribed to Orientalism -- a means of disciplining & domination. So, if funding is cut, universities can return to their primary task -- to produce intellectuals who can think for themselves & present alternative narratives to official discourse. J. Stanton