Middle East studies is facing a crisis stemming from both funding cuts and a broader marginalization linked to a political climate of rapidly increasing levels of Islamophobia. From the aftermath of 9/11 to October 7th, the history of Middle East studies can teach us about where we are going and why we should fight to change course. Attacks on the discipline are rooted in fears of how education can threaten U.S. narratives on Gaza and strengthen advocacy for Palestinian freedom.

As a PhD in Middle Eastern and North African studies, I can tell you that many of us chose to study cultures, religions, and countries because of a desire to understand and to dialogue. Our goal was to contribute some sort of worthwhile knowledge and theoretical expertise to an area that is treated as something foreign, strange or other — and as something to control, sanitize or colonize.

It’s no secret that the study of the Middle East became more popular after 9/11 or that the history and present of the discipline is tainted by western imperialism and orientalist stereotypes.

I grew up in a post-9/11 western context that was incredibly Islamophobic, but which in parallel, encouraged the study of Muslims and Arabs for the sake of providing scholarly expertise to power the United States’ colonial ambitions.

I grew up in a post-9/11 western context that was incredibly Islamophobic, but which in parallel, encouraged the study of Muslims and Arabs for the sake of providing scholarly expertise to power the United States’ colonial ambitions.

Middle Eastern studies was formalized as a discipline after World War II to bolster the United State’s rise as a global power. After 9/11, millions in federal funds were poured into area studies centers and language programs, with significant focus and funding dedicated to the Middle East. There was an increased interest in topics like terrorism and upticks in enrollment in Arabic language programs across American universities. It is unlikely those who advocated for funding the discipline envisioned the emergence of scholarly critiques on the invasion of Iraq or the critical interrogation of the United States’ dominant political narrative about it.

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When I started studying the Middle East, it was over a decade after 9/11, but the field had been reshaped in its wake through federal funding streams and a push towards research that would benefit the “national security” interests of the U.S. I would soon come to understand the political forces that had paved the way for my studies, and my research would shape me, change me, and transform me. Learning about the Arab world taught me a great deal about the Western world — not least of all how much the dominant discourses we produce about others are rooted in deeply-held beliefs about ourselves and desires for power and dominance.

What we are seeing now is in some sense a reversal of the post-9/11 trend that led many into the field and an overcorrection of a failed attempt by Western powers and governments to control the way academic knowledge is created and used. By funding Middle East studies, the U.S. unintentionally created a host of scholars who not only understood the history of the Middle East and its relationship to the Western world but had the theoretical training and academic skills to articulate the evils of imperialism. This is especially confronting in light of the ongoing genocide in Gaza that has been supported and funded by the U.S. government.

The Free Palestine movement of today has strong intellectual roots in regional histories and a knowledge base that was developed at least in part by the area studies departments at western universities where students study and scholars teach and research.

The Free Palestine movement of today has strong intellectual roots in regional histories and a knowledge base that was developed at least in part by the area studies departments at western universities where students study and scholars teach and research.

Bolstered by highly-educated leaders with a deep understanding of the history of settler colonialism that led us to this moment, the movement anchors its key arguments in decades of strong academic scholarship. We know from the reactions to pro-Palestine student protestors on college campuses – from both Democratic and Republican administrations – that this is deeply threatening to Western politicians.

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My entrance into the field of Middle East studies was emblematic of a cultural and political wave first formed in the wake of 9/11. The aftermath of 7th October has yielded a different wave rooted in the same fears. As tides turn aggressively towards Islamophobia and anti-Arab sentiment, the defunding of education is being leveraged to control the unruly monster created in part by funding it.

Once again, the prime political objective behind these decisions is to power the United States’ colonial ambitions — this time around Gaza. The defunding of Middle East Studies is rooted in a fear of knowledge about the true history and present of Palestine, and the deconstruction of the dominant narrative being peddled by a government with strong ties to Israel and economic investment in its military industrial complex.

My fear is how much worse off we will be — as a world and as human beings — if we don’t invest in places and spaces for study, for dialogue, and for knowledge production about our relationship to the Middle Eastern world and its deeply revealing history.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.

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