Seeing the World by Mitchell Stevens

Seeing the World by Mitchell Stevens

An in-depth look at why American universities continue to favor U.S.-focused social science research despite efforts to make scholarship more cosmopolitan

U.S. research universities have long endeavored to be cosmopolitan places, yet the disciplines of economics, political science, and sociology have remained stubbornly parochial. Despite decades of government and philanthropic investment in international scholarship, the most prestigious academic departments still favor research and expertise on the United States. Why? Seeing the World answers this question by examining university research centers that focus on the Middle East and related regional area studies.

Drawing on candid interviews with scores of top scholars and university leaders to understand how international inquiry is perceived and valued inside the academy, Seeing the World explains how intense competition for tenure-line appointments encourages faculty to pursue “American” projects that are most likely to garner professional advancement. At the same time, constrained by tight budgets at home, university leaders eagerly court patrons and clients worldwide but have a hard time getting departmental faculty to join the program. Together these dynamics shape how scholarship about the rest of the world evolves.

At once a work-and-occupations study of scholarly disciplines, an essay on the formal organization of knowledge, and an inquiry into the fate of area studies, Seeing the World is a must-read for anyone who cares about the future of knowledge in a global era.

"Written with verve, this short book does a good job of contextualizing area studies within a historical sociology of the vicissitudes of academic life"---Mary Taylor Huber, Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning
"[Seeing the World] offers a novel perspective to understand the historical and contemporary role of US research universities in shaping and reshaping American and global societies. . . . A must-read book for anyone working or studying within the US higher education system. It will help current students, scholars, and administrators better understand their role within the American university’s knowledge-producing system.—Lipon Mondal, International Journal of Comparative Sociology"

Mitchell L. Stevens is associate professor of education at Stanford University. Cynthia Miller-Idriss is associate professor of education and sociology at American University. Seteney Shami is a program director at the Social Science Research Council and founding director of the Arab Council for the Social Sciences.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780691202938
ISBN 10	0691202931
Title	Seeing the World
Author	Mitchell Stevens
Series	Princeton Studies In Cultural Sociology
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Princeton University Press
Year published	2020-04-28
Number of pages	184
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.