Knowledge Production in Higher Education

‘This book addresses one of the key questions of our time – how research on the MENA and Europe has been influenced by the differing perspectives of educational traditions in a range of countries. The scholars brought together here elucidate the importance of not only bringing but also understanding diverse perspectives that emanate from the systems of training in Europe and the MENA, making clear that this impacts both the questions we ask and the hypotheses we consider. A must-read for scholars as they reflect on their own positionality and those of others in the field.’
Michael Robbins, Project Director, Arab Barometer

‘In this insightful volume, the editors and their co-authors critically highlight what readers already think they know about “Orient-al” or “Occident-al” knowledge production in higher education. The result offers intelligent interventions that point out what students – and sometimes also faculty – do not actually know about knowledge reproduction of the “other”. This is a timely thought-provoking treatise!’
Larbi Sadiki, Professor of Arab Democratization, University of Qatar

‘While a growing literature focuses on knowledge production and higher education in and on the Middle East, this timely volume is unique for considering the Middle East and Europe together. It explores the deeply political and expressly dialogic relationships that have produced fields, paradigms and perspectives, while eschewing unilinear genealogies and histories and focusing not only on epistemologies but crucially also on pedagogies.’
Seteney Shami, Founding Director, Arab Council for the Social Sciences

'Curiosity about the other has been a drive towards creating disciplines, expeditions, and exchange between various parts of the world. Among those parts – but not limited to them – are what is predominantly referred to as the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and/or Southwest Asia and North Africa (SWANA) region, and Europe. Seeking knowledge, learning, and literature on those regions has been regulated by state and capitalist interests that shaped how these regions are represented. In the recently edited volume by Michelle Pace and Jan Claudius Volkel, the authors outline how the MENA creates knowledge on Europe and vice-versa. The different chapters examine various elements from methodological limitations to funding on both ‘sides,’ while maintaining the initial argument that there are nuances to knowledge creation. Thus, the diversity and variety of knowledge and its means of production should be borderless.'
Dafne Carletti & Sara Tonsy, Journal of European Integration