Academic discipline
Middle Eastern studies
(sometimes referred to as
Near Eastern studies
,
West Asian Studies
or
South Western Asian
) is a name given to a number of academic programs associated with the study of the history, culture, politics, economies, and geography of the
Middle East
, an area that is generally interpreted to cover a range of nations including
Egypt
,
Iran
,
Iraq
,
Israel
,
Jordan
,
Lebanon
,
Oman
,
Palestine
,
Saudi Arabia
,
Syria
,
Turkey
, and
Yemen
. It is considered a form of
area studies
, taking an overtly interdisciplinary approach to the study of a region. In this sense Middle Eastern studies is a far broader and less traditional field than classical
Islamic studies
.
The subject was historically regarded as part of
Oriental studies
, which also included
East Asian studies
and
Egyptology
and other specialisms in the ancient civilizations of the region; the growth of the field of study in the West is treated at that article. Many academic faculties still cover both areas. Although some academic programs combine Middle Eastern studies with Islamic studies, based on the preponderance of
Muslims
in the region (with Israel and Lebanon being the only exceptions), others maintain these areas of study as separate disciplines.
Controversies
[
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]
In 1978
Edward Said
, a
Palestinian
American professor of
comparative literature
at
Columbia University
, published his book
Orientalism
, in which he accused earlier scholars of a "subtle and persistent
Eurocentric
prejudice against
Arab
-Islamic peoples and their culture", claiming the bias amounted to a justification for
imperialism
. Western academics such as
Irwin
challenged Said's conclusions,
[1]
however the book became a standard text of
literary theory
and
cultural studies
.
[2]
Following the
September 11 attacks
, U.S. Middle Eastern studies programs were criticized as inattentive to issues of
Islamic terrorism
. Israeli-American historian
Martin Kramer
published a 2001 book,
Ivory Towers on Sand: The Failure of Middle Eastern Studies in America
,
[3]
and
Wall Street Journal
article claiming that Middle Eastern studies courses were "part of the problem, not its remedy."
[
citation needed
]
In a
Foreign Affairs
review of the book,
F. Gregory Gause
said his analysis was, in part, "serious and substantive" but "far too often his valid points are overshadowed by academic score-settling and major inconsistencies."
[4]
In 2002,
American
writer
Daniel Pipes
established an organisation called
Campus Watch
to combat what he perceived to be serious problems within the discipline, including "analytical failures, the mixing of politics with scholarship, intolerance of alternative views, apologetics, and the abuse of power over students". He encouraged students to advise the organization of problems at their campuses. In turn critics within the discipline such as
John Esposito
accused him of "
McCarthyism
". Professors denounced by Pipes as "left-wing extremists" were often harassed with hate speech. Pipes was appointed to the
United States Institute of Peace
board of directors by
George W. Bush
, despite protests from the
Arab American
community.
[5]
In 2010,
foreign policy
analyst
Mitchell Bard
claimed in his 2010 book
The Arab Lobby: The Invisible Alliance That Undermines America's Interests in the Middle East
that elements of the
Arab lobby
particularly
Saudi Arabia
and pro-
Palestinian
advocates were hijacking the academic field of Middle Eastern studies within several prominent American universities including
Georgetown University
,
Harvard University
, and
Columbia University
.
[6]
This has involved
Saudi Arabia
and other
Gulf States
funding centers and chairs at universities to promote a pro-
Arabist
agenda.
Bard has also accused several prominent Middle Eastern studies academics including
John Esposito
and
Rashid Khalidi
of abusing positions by advancing a pro-Palestinian political agenda.
In addition, Bard has criticized the
Middle Eastern Studies Association
(MESA) for adopting a pro-Palestinian standpoint. Bard has also alleged that MESA marginalizes non-Israel-related topics including the
Kurdish?Turkish conflict
and the persecution of religious minorities like
Christians
and ethnic minorities that are non-Arabs such as
Jews
,
Kurds
,
Armenians
and
Yazidis
.
Finally, Bard has contended that since the
September 11 attacks
, the Arab lobby working through Middle Eastern Studies university departments have sought to influence
pre-university
education by tailoring education programs and resources to reflect a pro-Arabist agenda.
Academic centers
[
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]
- The Middle East Centre (MEC) at
St Antony's College
,
University of Oxford
[12]
- Department of Near and Middle Eastern Studies
at
Trinity College Dublin
in
Dublin
,
Ireland
- Center for Arab and Middle Eastern Studies at the
American University of Beirut
- Centre for Arab & Islamic Studies (Middle East & Central Asia)
,
The Australian National University
,
Canberra
,
Australia
- Center for Contemporary Arab Studies
at
Georgetown University
- Middle Eastern Studies Center at
Duke University
- Center for Middle Eastern Studies at
Metropolitan University Prague
- Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Chicago
- Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Arizona
- Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Lund University
- Middle East Studies Institute
at
Shanghai International Studies University
,
China
- Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies
and
Middle East Studies
at the
University of Michigan
- Center for Modern Oriental Studies at
Humboldt University
in
Berlin
- Center for Near and Middle Eastern Studies
at
Marburg University
- Department of African, Middle Eastern, and South Asian Languages and Literatures
at
Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
- Institut francais du Proche-Orient
(IFPO), the French Institute for the Near East, in Damascus, Beirut and Amman
- Institute for Middle East Studies
at
George Washington University
- Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies
at
University of Exeter
- Institute of Middle East
at
Marmara University
- London Middle East Institute
at
School of Oriental and African Studies
- Middle East Center
at the
University of Pennsylvania
- Middle East Center
at the
University of Washington Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies
- Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies
at
New York University
- Middle East/South Asian Studies Program at
UC Davis
- Middle East Studies Center at
The American University in Cairo
- Middle Eastern Studies at the Jagiellonian University in Cracow
- Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies at
Tel Aviv University
- Sakarya University Middle East Institute
- School of Oriental and African Studies
at
University of London
- Middle Eastern Studies
at the
University of Texas
- UCLA Center for Near East Studies
- Brigham Young University Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies
- Department of Middle Eastern Studies at
King's College London
,
University of London
- Center for Middle Eastern Studies at
Harvard University
- The European Centre for Middle East Studies-ECMES
- Center for Arab and Islamic studies of Institute of Orientalism of Russian Academic of sciences
- Centre For West Asian Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India.
[13]
- Centre For West Asian Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India.
[14]
- West Asia Center, Seoul National University.
[15]
See also
[
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]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Flemming Rose
:
Forsvar for en profession
[Defence of a profession], interview with Prof. Robert Irwin,
Jyllands-Posten
, 12 April 2008, section 1, page 17 (accessed via
Infomedia.dk
and
the newspaper's website
)
- ^
"Edward Said's Orientalism: Forty years later | Middle East | Al Jazeera"
.
www.aljazeera.com
. Retrieved
2019-01-09
.
- ^
Qr?mer, Mar?in (2002).
Ivory towers on sand the failure of Middle Eastern studies in America
. Washington, DC: Washington Inst. for Near East Policy.
ISBN
9780944029497
.
OCLC
249109890
.
- ^
Gause, F.G. (March?April 2009).
"Who Lost Middle-Eastern Studies?"
.
Foreign Affairs
.
81
(2)
. Retrieved
4 December
2012
.
- ^
Dobbs, Michael (January 13, 2004).
"Middle East Studies Under Scrutiny in U.S."
Washington Post
.
- ^
Bard, Mitchell (2014).
The arab lobby: the invisible alliance that undermines america's interests in the middle east
. Place of publication not identified: HarperCollins e-Books.
ISBN
9780061987618
. Archived from
the original
on 2019-01-10
. Retrieved
2019-01-09
.
- ^
"Middle East Centre | St Antony's College"
.
www.sant.ox.ac.uk
. Retrieved
2022-10-13
.
- ^
"Centre for West Asian Studies - Jamia"
.
- ^
"CWAS | Welcome to Jawaharlal Nehru University"
.
- ^
"West Asia Center | Seoul National University Asia Center"
.
External links
[
edit
]
- Library guides to Middle-Eastern studies