Identity of convenience
Martin Kramer explores the question of national identity through the case of Nadia Abu El-Haj, “the anthropologist who last year received tenure at Barnard after a furious controversy over her book, Facts on the Ground: Archaeological Practice and Territorial Self-Fashioning in Israeli Society.” When it suits a narrative, Abu El-Haj is an “American.” When it suits her career, she is a “Palestinian-American.” Among many interesting points in the post, it is obvious that there are certain contexts in which being of Palestinian Arab descent benefits an academic career in the United States (presumably because of its built-in victim status), and is therefore useful to advertise. Unless, of course, that self-identification tends to impeach the scholar’s professional objectivity, in which case Nadia Abu El-Haj becomes, simply, an American.
[Cross-posted]
Topics: everything
Posted by Tigerhawk at 6:43 am on Tuesday, April 22, 2008
One Response to “Identity of convenience”
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April 22nd, 2008 at 4:03 pm
Do you mean to assert that an American born citizen can not be a leftist idiot and a Jew hater?
I think Jimmy Carter disproves that idea.