Epistemologies of Division in Arab Media Scholarship

Abstract

This article discusses epistemologies of division in Arab media scholarship as a topical case study, given the role of media as a convergence of ideology, values, politics, and market mechanisms. It specifically addresses these questions: How does the colonial structure of academia seek to alienate Global Majority communities from one another? What is the intimate impact of this structure on the lives of academics under these epistemologies of division? And to what extent do non-Western media scholars reinforce this alienated image through internalized Orientalism? Methodologically, the article is based on an autoethnographic approach where I reflect on my professional trajectory as an Arab “diasporic academic” who spent nearly thirty years in Europe before moving back to the Middle East. Theoretically, the article draws on Orientalism as an ideology to shed light on how Western higher education institutions (HEIs) reinforce their superiority, creating an epistemic exclusion of Arab scholars. This problem is exacerbated by the neoliberal policies that tend to place HEIs on a global hierarchy, and by Arab scholars’ acceptance of this exclusion, which is termed internalized or self-orientalism.