Learning Places: The Afterlives of Area StudiesMasao Miyoshi, Harry Harootunian Duke University Press, 2002 M11 15 - 408 pages Under globalization, the project of area studies and its relationship to the fields of cultural, ethnic, and gender studies has grown more complex and more in need of the rigorous reexamination that this volume and its distinguished contributors undertake. In the aftermath of World War II, area studies were created in large part to supply information on potential enemies of the United States. The essays in Learning Places argue, however, that the post–Cold War era has seen these programs largely degenerate into little more than public relations firms for the areas they research. A tremendous amount of money flows—particularly within the sphere of East Asian studies, the contributors claim—from foreign agencies and governments to U.S. universities to underwrite courses on their histories and societies. In the process, this volume argues, such funds have gone beyond support to the wholesale subsidization of students in graduate programs, threatening the very integrity of research agendas. Native authority has been elevated to a position of primacy; Asian-born academics are presumed to be definitive commentators in Asian studies, for example. Area studies, the contributors believe, has outlived the original reason for its construction. The essays in this volume examine particular topics such as the development of cultural studies and hyphenated studies (such as African-American, Asian-American, Mexican-American) in the context of the failure of area studies, the corporatization of the contemporary university, the prehistory of postcolonial discourse, and the problematic impact of unformulated political goals on international activism. Learning Places points to the necessity, the difficulty, and the possibility in higher education of breaking free from an entrenched Cold War narrative and making the study of a specific area part of the agenda of education generally. The book will appeal to all whose research has a local component, as well as to those interested in the future course of higher education generally. Contributors. Paul A. Bové, Rey Chow, Bruce Cummings, James A. Fujii, Harry Harootunian, Masao Miyoshi, Tetsuo Najita, Richard H. Okada, Benita Parry, Moss Roberts, Bernard S. Silberman, Stefan Tanaka, Rob Wilson, Sylvia Yanagisako, Mitsuhiro Yoshimoto |
Contents
Ivory Tower in Escrow | 19 |
Andö ShöekiThe Forgotten Thinker in Japanese History | 61 |
Objectivism and the Eradication of Critique in Japanese History | 80 |
Issues of Pedagogy in Multiculturalism | 103 |
A Discussion of Homi Bhabhas | 119 |
Postcolonialitys UnconsciousArea Studies Desire | 150 |
Asian Exclusion Acts | 175 |
Areas Disciplines and Ethnicity | 190 |
Forgetting Colonialism in the Magical Free Markets of the American Pacific | 231 |
The State the Foundations and Area Studies during and after the Cold War | 261 |
Japan and Social Science | 303 |
Bad Karma in Asia | 321 |
Modern Japanese Literary Studies in the Age of Cultural Studies | 344 |
Disciplinary Boundaries and the Invention of the Scholarly Object | 368 |
Contributors | 403 |
405 | |
Can American Studies Be Area Studies? | 206 |
Other editions - View all
Learning Places: The Afterlives of Area Studies Masao Miyoshi,Harry Harootunian Limited preview - 2002 |
Common terms and phrases
academic agency analysis Andō Shōeki APEC area studies Asia-Pacific Asian American studies Asian studies Bhabha boundaries capitalism Center China Chinese claims Cold Cold War colonial comparative literature concept corporate critical critique cultural studies Director disciplinary disciplines discourse dominant East Asia economic essay ethnic example field film studies funding global historians humanities Ibid identity ideological imperial institutional intellectual issues Japa Japan Japanese Americans Japanese cinema Japanese film Japanese literature Japanese studies knowledge language literary studies means modern Mosely multiculturalism narrative nation-state native nature nese object Pacific Pol Pot political position postcolonial postwar practice produced question region Rekiken relations representation role scholars scholarship sekaishi social science society space specific SSRC structure subaltern theoretical theory tion tional tradition transnational tural ture United University Press Vietnam Western World War II writing York