The Politics of Gulf Studies

[nativeinformant]

So those of you on the blogosphere have heard and shared several stories about the difficulties and special considerations surrounding doing research and teaching in the Gulf. I feel like as a researcher I self-censor way more than I would while in the states and that I am constantly looking over my shoulder. These paranoias are actually more self-

Comments

[istara]

This made me laugh (the "uncles") as much as it made me want to cry

[nativeinformant]

While I agree with you on this in some ways, I also think there is another disturbing trend that goes along with this, and that is the corporatization of the university system. I see it daily in the way students (and their parents) act more and more like customers, bargaining for grades, and policing what professors teach in class. In the US at least there have been serious backlashes against those of us that teach women's studies, gay and lesbian studies, ethnic studies, and even evolution. And because the university is increasingly a money meking endeavor, I feel that academic freedom is being sacrificed well enough on its own, regardless of foreign money

[istara]

I agree there is no simple, single dichotomy

[istara]

It's already happened, some of the most prestigious universities in the US have been bought off by Arab regimes and forced to redefine "academic freedom" in a variety of ways. Georgetown, Cornell, among others, have been bought by the rulers of Qatar and set up campuses there that are gender segregated, racist, and, from what I've been told, also with institutionalized censorship in what can be taught....

Of course, the issue here is not the Wahhabization of western education, but, as Neha argues, it's corporatization - chasing the money tree. The British academy is already bankrupt, thanks to "Thatcherism", and thus dependent on selling at a high price useless degrees to kids from India and elsewhere. In the US, Nike and IBM, along with big pharmaceuticals, dictate a lot of the terms of how universities define themselves today.

It isn't about Wahhabism, but neo-liberalism, the privatization of academia, and the institutionalization of corporate fundamentalism....

Chad

[istara]

Good god I cannot believe stuff like this has already happened in America.

I'm glad there was no mullah-meddling in my UK-based studies of Eng Lit. There have already been articles in the newspapers here in Dubai of how Shakespeare among others should be banned because of sex/anti-Islam/offensive content. God forbid someone buys Oxford and burns the contents of the Bodleian to replace it with sharia compliant literary content.

[istara]

Oh hold on do you mean the overseas campuses of universities? Those I can understand being meddled with, because let's face it, they are essentially diploma mills (or at least their purpose is purely profitmongering). If Harvard sets up a campus in Doha or Manama or Riyadh then that's one thing, but if campuses on American soil are being constricted, that is quite another.

[istara]

well the UK still has a blasphemy law, just like Pakistan and one can't expect too much from the US where in some schools biology teachers are forced to teach "creationism" alongside evolution.... censorship and other forms of limiting education is universal, it has nothing to do with Wahhabism, besides, Qatar is hardly a bastion of Wahhabism.

in the US soon after 9/11 a new movement was initiated of harassing professors who were deemed "liberal" - i.e., who opposed mindless jingoism and US imperialism. check out campuswatch.org - it's toned down a little, but basically students were asked to report on their faculty and what they said in class. there is still a bit of a witch-hunt going on.

i would come back to the idea though that the biggest threat to education, particularly higher education, is not the attempt by some to impose a particular ideology, even by the likes of daniel pipes at campuswatch, but by money and the corporatization of academia....

[nativeinformant]

I'm a little concerned about the East/West and Muslim/non-Muslim dichotomy that you seem to be making. Like the other respondent said, there are plenty of restraints on academic freedom in the West, and I am personally way more frightened by the spread of Christian fundamentalism. Plus, let's not forget the power dynamics of area studies, being based in colonial projects of conquest... those kinds of politics and assumptions about the non-West being less progressive are actually perpetuated in academia itself. I would be careful about perpetuating them more. Not that you are doing that intentionally, but I think the choice of language implies that a bit.

[istara]

Well the (Middle) East/West "dichotomy" is specifically relevant here, since the issue was the UK/Sheikh of Qatar. But I take your point about Christian fundamentalism which is also extremely worrying.

But at the end of the day I believe we should be able to draw a fairly clear dichotomy between nations that allow and even extol freedom of speech as a basic human right, and those who see it as anything but. This is not a simple East/West divide, and it is certainly not a specific Muslim/non-Muslim divide (China, North Korea, certain African nations). But I see a fairly clear pattern here - Worldwide Press Freedom Index - don't you?

But while the US/Europe/UK may not enjoy perfect freedoms of speech - I think the anti-holocaust denial laws in many nations are particularly problematic - I do not think they are anything in comparison to the restraints on freedom of speech in certain other nations. In fact it irks me to even compare them.