1st Edition

Orientalism, Zionism and Academic Practice Middle East and Islam Studies in Israeli Universities

By Eyal Clyne Copyright 2019
268 Pages
by Routledge

268 Pages 7 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

268 Pages 7 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

Orientalism, Zionism and Academic Practice explores the field of Israeli Middle East and Islamic Studies (MEIS) sociologically and politically, as a window onto the relationship between Orientalism, Zionism and academia. The book draws special attention to neoliberal discourse and praxis in everyday higher education, the interests of scholars, and the political form that commercialisation takes... Read more

Introduction  Part 1: Historicism  1. Genealogies  2. New Hegemonies  Part 2: Anti-crisis  3. Disciplining Saidism  4. Anti-crisis  Part 3: Discourse and Ideology  Can society speak?  5. Interest  6. Marketing  7. Mission  8. The nonacademic  Conclusion

Biography

Eyal Clyne is a transdisciplinary discourse and ideology analyst, studying higher education and Israeli discourse and praxis. He holds a PhD from the University of Manchester, an MA in sociology and anthropology from Tel Aviv University, and a double major BA in Middle East and Islam studies and communications and media from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Eyal has taught sociology, anthropology, culture, politics, discourse and language in the University of Manchester, Manchester Metropolitan University, Tel Aviv University and Tel Aviv Yafo Academic College.

This book offers a nuanced and detailed reading of the imbrication of contemporary Israeli Middle Eastern Studies, as a window of Israeli society generally, within the current nationalist project. Through outstanding and meticulous analysis of original, fascinating fieldwork, the author demonstrates how global pressures affecting higher education operate in this very particular context to maintain and reproduce, as well as in some cases mitigate, broader dynamics of marginalisation of Arabs and Palestinians in Israeli society today. A must for all social scientists interested in higher education studies, and nation/citizenship studies. - Erica Burman, The Discourse Unit and Manchester Institute of Education, University of Manchester.

This is a brilliant sociology-of-knowledge study of the embeddedness of the academic field of Middle East and Islamic Studies in Israeli academia within its broader Jewish-Israeli Zionist political culture. It provides innovative and insightful analysis of knowledge-production, networks, interests, and the history of the field. - Uri Ram, former President of the Israeli Sociological Association.