Middle east politics in US academia: The case of anthropology

In their recent book, Anthropology’s Politics: Disciplining the Middle East (Stanford University Press, 2016), Lara Deeb and Jessica Winegar provide the first academic study of how political and economic pressures shape the way scholars based in the United States research and teach about the Middle East. Lila Abu-Lughod, a member of the journal’s editorial board, recently talked with the authors about the dynamics of the field. The book’s final chapter examines the movement among anthropologists in support of a boycott of Israeli academic institutions. Just after the book’s publication, the issue came to a vote at the American Anthropological Association. Abu-Lughod asks the authors whether their research enables us to understand the outcome of the vote.