Contested Encounters: Boundaries of American Studies and the Middle East

Abstract

This essay review examines the varied ways contemporary Americanists have studied US-Middle East encounters. While scholarship incorporating Middle Eastern languages and archives remains rare, the transnationalization of the field has brought unprecedented attention to American representations of and connections to Israel and Palestine. The essay connects this diversity in approaches to disciplinary boundaries, intellectual habitus, and political pressures on scholarship engaging the Middle East. It identifies focus on contentions as a growth area and a key point of intersection, with scholars increasingly foregrounding conflicting viewpoints from within the US and/or the Middle East.