Epistemologies of Division in Arab Media Scholarship

Noha Mellor

doi:10.29333/ejecs/2030

Authors

Noha Mellor University of Sharjah https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3709-4808

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.29333/ejecs/2030

Keywords:

Orientalism, self-Orientalism, transnational academics, media studies, autoethnography, epistemic exclusion, Neoliberalism

Abstract

This article discusses epistemologies of division in Arab media scholarship as a topical case study, given the role of media as a convergence of ideology, values, politics, and market mechanisms. It specifically addresses these questions: How does the colonial structure of academia seek to alienate Global Majority communities from one another? What is the intimate impact of this structure on the lives of academics under these epistemologies of division? And to what extent do non-Western media scholars reinforce this alienated image through internalized Orientalism? Methodologically, the article is based on an autoethnographic approach where I reflect on my professional trajectory as an Arab “diasporic academic” who spent nearly thirty years in Europe before moving back to the Middle East. Theoretically, the article draws on Orientalism as an ideology to shed light on how Western higher education institutions (HEIs) reinforce their superiority, creating an epistemic exclusion of Arab scholars. This problem is exacerbated by the neoliberal policies that tend to place HEIs on a global hierarchy, and by Arab scholars’ acceptance of this exclusion, which is termed internalized or self-orientalism.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

Noha Mellor, University of Sharjah

Noha Mellor is a Professor of media and communication at the College of Communication, University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. She has authored or edited several books on Arab media, including Routledge Handbook on Arab Cinema (2024), Arab Digital Journalism (Routledge, 2022), and Routledge Handbook on Arab Media (2021).

References

Abaza, M. (2011, September 26). Academic tourists sight-seeing the Arab Spring. Ahram Weekly. http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/22373.aspx

Achcar, G. (2008). Orientalism in reverse. Radical Philosophy, 151, 20–30.

Adams, T. E., Jones, S. H., & Ellis, C. (2015). Autoethnography. Oxford University Press.

Aksnes, D., Langfeld, L., & Wouters, P. (2019). Citations, citation indicators, and research quality: An overview of basic concepts and theories. SAGE Open, 9(1), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244019829575 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244019829575

Alahmed, A. M. (2020). Internalized Orientalism: Toward a postcolonial media theory and de-westernizing communication research from the Global South. Communication Theory, 30, 407–428. https://doi.org/10.1093/ct/qtz037 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/ct/qtz037

AlMaghlouth, N., Arvanitis, R., Cointet, J., & Hanafi, S. (2015). Who frames the debate on the Arab uprisings? Analysis of Arabic, English, and French academic scholarship. International Sociology, 30(4), 418–441. https://doi.org/10.1177/0268580915580157 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0268580915580157

An-Na‘im, A. A. (2003). Introduction: “Area Expressions” and the universality of human rights: Mediating a contingent relationship. In D. P. Forsythe & P. C. McMahon (Eds.), Human rights and diversity: Area studies revisited (pp. 1–24). University of Nebraska Press.

Arday, J., Belluigi, D. Z., & Thomas, D. (2021). Attempting to break the chain: Reimaging inclusive pedagogy and decolonising the curriculum within the academy. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 53(3), 298–313. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2020.1773257 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2020.1773257

Ayish, M., & Sadig, H. B. (1997). The Arab-Islamic heritage in communication ethics. In C. Christians & M. Traber (Eds.), Communication ethics and universal values (pp. 105–127). SAGE Publications. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781452243542.n6 DOI: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781452243542.n6

Bhopal, K., Brown, H., & Jackson, J. (2015). BME academic flight from UK to overseas higher education: Aspects of marginalisation and exclusion. British Educational Research Journal, 42(2), 240–257. https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.3204 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.3204

Bourdieu, P. (1988). Homo academicus (P. Collier, Trans.).Polity Press.

Bourdieu, P., & Passeron, J. (1990). Reproduction in education, society and culture (2nd ed.; R. Nice, Trans.). SAGE Publications.

Brooks, R. (2019). The construction of higher education students within national policy: a cross-European comparison. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 51(2), 161–180. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057925.2019.1604118 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03057925.2019.1604118

Brown, W. (2015). Undoing the demos: Neoliberalism’s stealth revolution. Zone Books. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt17kk9p8

Chakravartty, P., Kuo, R., Grubbs, V., & McIlwain, C. (2018). “#CommunicationSoWhite,” Journal of Communication, 68(2), 254–66. https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqy003 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqy003

Chan, M., Yi, J., Hu, P., & Kuznetsov, D. (2021). The politics of contextualization in communication research: Examining the discursive strategies of non-U.S. research in communication journals. International Journal of Communication, 15, 5272–5294. https://www.com.cuhk.edu.hk/images/content_people/publication/michael-journal-2021-politics.pdf

Delgado, R., & Stefancic, J. (2001). Critical Race Theory: An introduction. New York University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/acref/9780195301731.013.51089

Demeter, M. (2019). The winner takes it all: International inequality in communication and media studies today. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 96(1), 37–59. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077699018792270 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1077699018792270

Dutta, M. J., & Pal, M. (2020). Theorizing from the Global South: Dismantling, resisting, and transforming communication theory. Communication Theory, 30(4), 349–69. https://doi.org/10.1093/ct/qtaa010 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/ct/qtaa010

El Kurd, D. (2023). Elusive decolonisation of IR in the Arab world. Review of International Studies, 49, 379–389. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0260210523000141 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0260210523000141

Ellis, C., & Adams, T. E. (2014). The purposes, practices, and principles of autoethnographic research. In P. Leavy (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of qualitative research (pp. 254–276). Oxford University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199811755.013.004

El-Ouahi, J., Robinson-García, N., & Costas, R. (2021). Analyzing scientific mobility and collaboration in the Middle East and North Africa. Quantitative Science Studies, 2(3), 1023–1047. https://doi.org/10.1162/qss_a_00149 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1162/qss_a_00149

El Baba, W., & Khawaja, M. (2023). Middle class in Arab countries (Working Paper No. 2). Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia. https://www.unescwa.org/sites/default/files/inline-files/middle-class-arab-countries-working-paper-2.pdf

Feighery, W. G. (2012). Tourism and self-Orientalism in Oman: A critical discourse analysis. Critical Discourse Studies, 9(3), 269–284. https://doi.org/10.1080/17405904.2012.688210 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17405904.2012.688210

Forster, N. (2018). Why are there so few world-class universities in the Middle East and North Africa? Journal of Further and Higher Education, 42(8), 1025–1039. https://doi.org/10.1080/0309877X.2017.1349881 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0309877X.2017.1349881

Ha, P. L. (2023). Interrogating systemic inequalities in discourses surrounding academic diaspora and transnational education-driven mobilities: A focus on Vietnam’s higher education. British Journal of Educational Studies, 71(2), 169–193. https://doi.org/10.1080/00071005.2022.2084501 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00071005.2022.2084501

Hanafi, S., & Arvanitis, R. (2016). Knowledge production in the Arab world: The impossible promise. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315669434 DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315669434

Hedge, R. S., & Shome, R. (2002). Postcolonial scholarship? Productions and directions: An interview with Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. Communication Theory, 12(3), 271–286. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468–2885.2002.tb00270.x DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2885.2002.tb00270.x

Heleta, S. (2016). Decolonisation of higher education: Dismantling epistemic violence and Eurocentrism in South Africa. Transformation in Higher Education, 1(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.4102/the.v1i1.9 DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/the.v1i1.9

Gani, J. (2022). From discourse to practice: Orientalism, western policy and the Arab uprisings. International Affairs, 98(1), 45–65, https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/iiab229 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/iiab229

Jin, D. Y (2021). Encounters with Western media theory: Asian perspectives. Media, Culture & Society, 43(1), 150–157. https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443720939482 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443720939482

Karimi, Z. (2024). I am not the info desk for Islam and Arabs: The racialization of Islam and boundaries of citizenship. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 47(1), 45–63.https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2023.2210659 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2023.2210659

Khudarova , A. ., Abdramanov , Y. ., Tsvetkova, M., & Sokolovskiy, K. (2024). The Influence of the Cultural and Religious Factors on the Media. Journal of Ethnic and Cultural Studies, 11(3), 114–137. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejecs/1830 DOI: https://doi.org/10.29333/ejecs/1830

Kim, T., & Ng, W. (2019). Ticking the ‘other’ box: Positional identities of East Asian academics in UK universities, internationalisation and diversification. Policy Reviews in Higher Education, 3(1), 94–119. https://doi.org/10.1080/23322969.2018.1564886 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/23322969.2018.1564886

Kubeisy, S., & Freeman, B. C. (2020). Bridging or widening the gap? Narrative discourses of the West and Westerners in Jordan’s my American neighbor television program. Contemporary Review of the Middle East, 7(4), 431–445. https://doi.org/10.1177/2347798920939840 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/2347798920939840

Larner, W. (2015). Globalising knowledge networks: Universities, diaspora strategies, and academic intermediaries. Geoforum, 59, 197–205. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2014.10.006 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2014.10.006

Lei, L., & Guo, S. (2020). Conceptualizing virtual transnational diaspora: Returning to the ‘return’ of Chinese transnational academics. Asian and Pacific Migration Journal, 29(2), 227–253. https://doi.org/10.1177/0117196820935995 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0117196820935995

Martini, M., & Robertson, S. L. (2022). UK higher education, neoliberal meritocracy, and the culture of the new capitalism: A computational‐linguistics analysis. Sociology Compass, 16(12) Article e13020. https://doi.org/10.1111/soc4.13020 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/soc4.13020

Mayer, M., & Eccles, S. (2019). Reclaiming our universities: A manifesto to dismantle the UK HE sector neoliberal agenda. Angles, 8. https://doi.org/10.4000/angles.653 DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/angles.653

Mohammed, W. F. (2022). Bilchiinsi philosophy: Decolonizing methodologies in media studies. Review of Communication, 22(1), 7–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/15358593.2021.2024870 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/15358593.2021.2024870

Nguyen, N.T., & Chia, Y.T. (2023). Decolonizing research imagination: A journey of reshaping research epistemology and ontology. Asia Pacific Education Review, 24, 213–226. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-023-09822-8 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-023-09822-8

Radice, H. (2015). How we got here: UK higher education under neoliberalism. ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies, 12(2), 407–418. https://doi.org/10.14288/acme.v12i2.969

Ranji, B. (2021) Traces of orientalism in media studies. Media, Culture, & Society, 43(6), 1136–1146. https://doi.org/10.1177/01634437211022692 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/01634437211022692

Richards, R. (2008). Writing the othered self: Autoethnography and the problem of objectification in writing about illness and disability. Qualitative Health Research, 18, 1717–1728.https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732308325866 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732308325866

Rodgers, A. J., & Liera, R. (2023). When race becomes capital: Diversity, faculty hiring, and the entrenchment of racial capitalism in higher education. Educational Researcher, 52(7), 444–449. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X231175359 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X231175359

Rolfe, G. (2012). The university in dissent: Scholarship in the corporate university. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203084281 DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203084281

Sa’di, A. H. (2021). Orientalism in a globalised world: Said in the twenty-first century. Third World Quarterly, 42(11), 2505–2520. https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2020.1788935 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2020.1788935

Sabry, T. (2010). Cultural encounters in the Arab world. I B Tauris. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5040/9780755610884

Saha, A., & van Lente, S. (2022a). Diversity, media and racial capitalism: A case study on publishing. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 45(16), 216–236. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2022.2032250 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2022.2032250

Saha, A., & van Lente, S. (2022b). The limits of diversity: How publishing industries make race. International Journal of Communication, 16, 1804–1822.

Said, E. W. (2003). Orientalism. Penguin Classics. (Original work published 1978)

Schinkel, W. (2017). Imagined societies: A critique of immigrant integration in Western Europe. Cambridge University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316424230

Settles, I. H., Jones, M. K., Buchanan, N. T., & Dotson, K. (2021). Epistemic exclusion: Scholar(ly) devaluation that marginalizes faculty of color. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, 14(4), 493–507. https://doi.org/10.1037/dhe0000174 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/dhe0000174

Shami, S. (2022). South and North, East, and West: Knowledge circulations and connections in a disordered world. In K. Kresse & A. Sounaye (Eds.), Thinking the re-thinking of the world: Decolonial challenges to the humanities and social sciences from Africa, Asia and the Middle East (pp. 25–46). De Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110733198-002 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110733198-002

Shome, R. (2019). Thinking Culture and Cultural Studies—from/of the Global South. Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, 16(3), 196–218. https://doi.org/10.1080/14791420.2019.1648841 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14791420.2019.1648841

Siltaoja, M., Juusola, K., & Kivijärvi, M. (2019). ‘World-class’ fantasies: A neocolonial analysis of international branch campuses. Organization, 26(1), 75–97. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350508418775836 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1350508418775836

Sobhy, H. (2023). Schooling the nation education and everyday politics in Egypt. Cambridge University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108956031

Sukarieh, M., & Tannock, S. (2013). On the problem of over-researched communities: The case of the Shatila Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon. Sociology, 47(3), 494–508. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038512448567 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038512448567

Tsegay, S. M. (2019). Diaspora academics engagement in Eritrean higher education institutions: Current conditions and future trends. Migration and Development, 10(2), 421–441. https://doi.org/10.1080/21632324.2019.1675247 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/21632324.2019.1675247

Universities UK International. (2021). International facts and figures. https://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/sites/default/files/field/downloads/2021-12/International%20Facts%20and%20Figures%202021_0.pdf

Vingaard Johansen, U., Knudsen, F. B., Engelbrecht Kristoffersen, C., Rasmussen, J. S., Saaby Steffen, E., & Sund, K. J. (2017). Political discourse on higher education in Denmark: From enlightened citizen to homo economicus. Studies in Higher Education, 42(2), 264-277. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2015.1045477 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2015.1045477

Waisbord, S. (2019). Communication: A post-discipline. Polity Press.

Willems, W. (2014). Provincializing hegemonic histories of media and communication studies: Toward a genealogy of epistemic resistance in Africa. Communication Theory, 24, 415–434. https://doi.org/10.1111/comt.12043 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/comt.12043

Xingcheng, Z. (2006). The globalized logic of Orientalism. Contemporary Chinese Thought, 37(4), 48–54. https://doi.org/10.2753/CSP1097-1467370403 DOI: https://doi.org/10.2753/CSP1097-1467370403

Yalkin, C., & Özbilgin, M. F. (2022). Neo-colonial hierarchies of knowledge in marketing: Toxic field and illusio. Marketing Theory, 22(2), 191–209. https://doi.org/10.1177/14705931221075369 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/14705931221075369

Zakaria, F. (1987). The Islamic awakening in the balance of reason (in Arabic) (2nd edition.). Dar El Fikr.

Zakaria, F. (2017). Criticism of Orientalism and the crisis of contemporary Arab culture (in Arabic). Hindawi Foundation.