Global Cultures-American Cultures:
Migration, Transnationalism, Diaspora and Globalism, or What is American about America?
This event was held as part of the American Cultures Spotlight Series: From Concept to Classroom on May 10, 2006.
Scholars across disciplines often question the saliency of the nation-state. That the nation-state as an analytical site is in question raises profound issues for the study of American Cultures. Indeed, many scholars have argued that narratives focused on the nation-state, and by extension immigration as an entering and exiting of this said nation-state, merely validate the nation-state. Some suggest that in opening to new analytical frameworks, we might contest this territorial validity. These enabled conversations center on normative constructions of identity, infusing vast revisions of what we might organize as “American.” This roundtable will bring together a number of Berkeley scholars, each of whom grapples with the complex understandings of conceptually framing this permanently unfinished America.
Moderated by Professor Jeff Romm, this panel included:
Professor Aihwa Ong
Professor José David Saldívar
Professor Nancy Scheper-Hughes