Tag: Richard Slotkin

Israel, Palestine, and the “Myth and Symbol” of American Studies

Lisa Duggan, president of the American Studies Association, has an excellent oped in the Los Angeles Times on the organization’s recent convention in Los Angeles and how the ASA has fared, academically and politically, in the year since it announced its boycott of Israeli academic institutions. Lisa’s oped reminds me of a point that’s been bothering me for some time. One of the frequent criticisms that opponents of the ASA boycott make is this: What in the world is an American Studies organization doing concerning itself with the affairs of another country? As one American Studies scholar (to whom Lisa is in part responding) put it in the LA Times: Ostensibly devoted to the study of all things American, the […]