In November of 1998, the American Studies Program of Washington State University played host to a brilliant and charming delegation of American Studies scholars from around the world. We at WSU thank the International Committee of the American Studies Association, and the USIA, for their assistance in bringing this to WSU.
Over a four-day period, from November 15 to 18, 1998, the visitors participated in a series of colloquia on topics in current American Studies scholarship offered by WSU faculty. In addition to general sessions divided by broad historical categories, we offered more specialized seminars on "The Multicultural American West," "Cultures and Environments," "Electronic American Studies Pedagogy and Scholarship," and, fittingly, "The Internationalization of American Studies." The exchanges were lively and enriching for all. It was clear that continuing this kind of exchange can be a vital part of world-wide American Studies teaching and research.
Each visitor brought with them a variety of questions and perspectives that give some sense of the range of things that the internationalization of American Studies can mean. Hakan Erdem from Turkey sought to explore parallels between forms of slavery in the Ottoman Empire and colonial America. Josephina Zurita from Panama wanted to better understand the nation whose commercial and military need for a canal had led to the domination of her country, while also questioning parallels between the treatment of native peoples in the US and Panama. Scarlett Cornelison, a woman from South Africa who would be labeled "black" by US racial categories and is labeled "colored" (mixed race) by South Africa's, wanted to further contextualize aspects of African American popular culture that are currently being embraced by many young people in her country as they seek new identities in the wake of the fall of apartheid. Valentyna Kushnarenko from the Ukraine, living still under the shadow of the former Soviet empire, sought to reconcile her admiration for US democracy and prosperity with an increased awareness of the limited access to both for peoples of color within this nation. Cao Li, from the People's Republic of China, shared with our faculty her perspectives on Asian American women writers as postcolonial subjects.
If there was one theme that came through most clearly from this particular, varied experiment in internationalizing American Studies, it was that, as one of the visitor's put it, "the empire is writing back." The danger is that efforts at internationalization will primarily be used to further the Americanization of the world. The hope is that such efforts will primarily serve to displace US ethnocentrisms and teach us more about the costs of our seldom acknowledged empire.
With this in mind, this site is dedicated to continuing the "internationalization" of American Studies through a dialogue among these and other international scholars and the American Studies community at WSU. |
