A coordenadora do Nuprima, profª Drª Silvia Ferabolli, participou da conferência anual da British Society for Middle Eastern Studies - BRISMES 2022 - realizada de 4 a 6 de julho, na Escócia. O evento teve como tema central “Exploring and contesting the (re)production of coloniality in the Middle East”.
A professora apresentou seu trabalho durante o painel “Tracing and Contesting Colonial Influences and Legacies”, organizado pelo professor John Chalcraft, da London School of Economics. O tema de sua apresentação “The Arab world: a region that dare speak its name” é resumido a seguir:
This paper makes an argument against what has become common sense in Middle Eastern studies: that the concept of Arab world is embedded in issues of race and ethnicity that disregards the non-Arab minorities living in the region and therefore should be avoided. Theoretically and methodologically informed by Paulo Freire’s concept of “dialogue” this paper argues that the Arab world refers to a region that is constituted as such through the Arab region making process which has much more to do with issues of history, culture and political economy than with ethnic allegiances or racial categories. Claiming that the concept of Arab world does not do justice to the non-Arab minorities in North Africa, the Levant or the Gulf is similar to saying that the European Union should have a more neutral name since there are millions of non-European citizens living in the several countries that constitute the bloc. Or that the existence of a Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries disrespects the non-Portuguese speaking minorities in Angola, Mozambique and Guinea Bissau. Or else that the term Latin America should be banished from scholarly vocabulary because it disregards the indigenous peoples of the region who do not consider themselves “Latins”. Finally, the paper presents the argument that the Middle East or the most contemporary and trendy acronyms of MENA, WANA and SWANA are not neutral whatsoever since they carry within themselves historical, geopolitical and cultural assumptions that may be even heavier than that of the Arab world.