Meet mulls Arab Spring, ‘De-Centering of American Studies’

Thelarger legacy of American Studies is a critique which is always aboutchallenging and de-centring received wisdom, a prominent scholar toldyesterday the opening session of the conference ‘From Tahrir Square toZuccotti Park: The Arab Spring and the De-Centering of American Studies’organised by the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies.“AmericanStudies is a project in itself de-centring knowledge or rethinkingknowledge. De-centring is a kind of friendly way of thinking aboutAmerican Studies. Often people outside the domain of American Studiesthink that it is a field to promote the US in some way,” said MelaniMcAlister, co-organiser of the conference and associate professor,George Washington University at the opening session of the conference.“Thelegacy of de-centring continued in 1960s and 1970s and American Studiesbecame a programme of supporting new ways and approaches. These studiesfocused on bringing the prospect of marginalised people into the centreof American story,” explained McAlister.“American Studiesprogrammes were often committed to social movements. American Studiesalso has been increasingly transnational as there were US scholars andauthors talking about the US role in the world,” she added.EidMohamed, co-organiser of the conference and professor of AmericanStudies and Comparative Cultural and Literary Studies at the DohaInstitute highlighted the theme of the conference and introduced thespeakers and guests at the opening ceremony.Abdellahi Hussein,programme manager, Qatar National Research Fund spoke about the fundingsystem of the organisation and highlighted the number of social scienceprojects funded by QNRF so far. The present conference is funded througha QNRF programme.Yasir Suleiman Malley, acting president, DohaInstitute for Graduate Studies, Abdelwahab El Affendi, dean of theSchool of Social Sciences and Humanities and Reuben E Brigety, dean ofthe Elliott School of International Affairs, George WashingtonUniversity also spoke at the opening session.The keynote speech byAzmi Bishara, The Omnipresence of America and the Absence of AmericanStudies, was read out by acting president Malley on the occasion.The conference continues for the next three days with a number of panel discussions and presentations.