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Teaching Orientalism in Introductory Human Geography

2009; Routledge; Volume: 61; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/00330120903103122

1467-9272

Ishan Ashutosh, Jamie Winders,

Geographies of human-animal interactions

Abstract This article explores efforts to bring postcolonial theory into the undergraduate human geography classroom. Through a case study of teaching Edward Said's Orientalism in introductory human geography, we discuss the relevance of postcolonial theory to critical pedagogy in geography. We lay out how instructors can teach Orientalism in introductory courses, what happens when they do so, and where efforts to use postcolonial theory to help students analyze the "colonial present" can be improved. We suggest that postcolonial theory is particularly well suited pedagogically to show students the mechanisms and uneven power relations producing and sustaining past and present geographies of difference. En este artículo se exploran los esfuerzos de llevar la teoría poscolonial al aula de la geografía humana de pregrado. Discutimos la relevancia que tiene la teoría poscolonial para la pedagogía crítica en geografía por medio de un estudio de caso, esto es, la enseñanza del Orientalismo de Edward Said en el curso introductorio de gteografía humana. Mostramos a los instructores cómo enseñar Orientalismo en estos cursos iniciales, qué puede ocurrir cuando lo hacen, y en qué parte se pueden mejorar los esfuerzos de utilizar la teoría poscolonial para ayudar a los estudiantes a analizar el "presente colonial." Sugerimos que, desde el punto de vista pedagógico, esta teoría es particularmente apropiada para mostrar a los estudiantes las relaciones de mecanismos y poderes desiguales que producen y sostienen las geografías de la diferencia, pasadas y actuales. Key Words: colonial presentintroductory human geographyOrientalismpedagogypostcolonial theory关键词: 殖民化现状介绍人文地理学东方学教育学后殖民理论Palabras clave: presente colonialgeografía humana básicaOrientalismopedagogíateoría poscolonial ISHAN ASHUTOSH is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Geography at Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13224. E-mail: iashutos@maxwell.syr.edu. His research interests include the South Asian diaspora, migrant transnationalism, and urban geography. JAMIE WINDERS is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography at Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244. E-mail: jwinders@maxwell.syr.edu. Her research interests include Latino migration to the American South, urban transformation, and racial politics. Notes 1 Throughout this article, we mark moments where our roles and experiences as instructor and teaching assistant diverge. In all other points, we draw on our collective experiences. 2 Our use of "Orientalism" follows Said's (2003) Said, E. 2003. Reflections on exile and other essays, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. [Google Scholar] positioning of it less as a reference to his book and more to the problems to which the book referred. 3 There is a substantial literature on contemporary and historic media and public representations of the U.S. South and West. See, for example, Griffin and Doyle (1995) Griffin, L. J. and Doyle, D. H., eds. 1995. The South as an American problem., Athens: University of Georgia Press. [Google Scholar], Ayers et al. (1996) Ayers, E. L., Limerick, P. N., Nissenbaum, S. and Onuf, P. S. 1996. All over the map: Rethinking American regions, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. [Google Scholar], Sabin (1997) Sabin, P. 1997. Home and abroad: The two "Wests" of twentieth-century United States history. Pacific Historical Review, 66(4): 305–35. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar], Greeson (1999) Greeson, J. R. 1999. The figure of the South and the nationalizing imperatives of early United States literature. The Yale Journal of Criticism, 12(2): 209–48. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar], Jansson (2003a) Jansson, D. R. 2003a. The American national identity and the progress of the New South in National Geographic Magazine.. The Geographical Review, 93(3): 350–69. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], and Winders (2005) Winders, J. 2005. Imperfectly imperial: Northern travel writers in the postbellum U.S. South, 1865–1880. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 95(2): 391–410. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]. We thank a reviewer for encouraging us to include this literature. 4 This argument about journalistic bias was a recurring theme in student papers, many of which used Said's arguments to discuss how particular places, often the "Middle East," were described in kneyed ways. In doing so, many students made a problematic jump from a few newspaper articles to "all Western media" or were left with the argument that Orientalism is about "wrong" stereotypes, rather than an overall mode of representation and power. 5 London is the basis of another version of the board game, Monopoly. The student was unaware of this London version of the game, as we were, when she wrote the paper. Comparing Desi Monopoly to the London Monopoly might have given her a clearer sense of how to proceed with her analysis, which frequently frustrated her as she tried to understand a "desi" geography of British cities that destabilized dominant images of British urban landscapes through comparison to an American urban geography of board-game capitalism. We thank a reviewer for pointing us toward the London version of Monopoly. 6 A similarly enhanced analysis could be offered, had we explicitly engaged feminist critiques of Said.