From: "IBU" <mbilici-AT-bilgi.edu.tr>
Subject: (Dis-)Orientalization on the web
Date: Sun, 23 Jan 2000 03:12:37 +0200


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dear list,
Students who are applying for PhD to the departments of Middle Eastern Studies in the USA, are given the chance to have an introductory observation about which you may wish to hear.
The symbols and motifs used for representation of the Middle East are still very much under the influence of Orientalist depiction. Once made streotyping process has not been reviewed for a long time. Most of the departmental web pages of the Middle Eastern Studies (or Near Eastern St) still maintain images of an "Orientalized Orient". A change that is significant to note here is the renewal of the NYU's Middle Eastern Studies web page. The new images used for the departmental pages are much more representative of "real" "Orient", that's, they are  less reductionist and more conscious of the Orientalist symbolic violence.
I hope that the number of such efforts to de-contaminate the Net from Orientalism will increase in the future.

Mucahit Bilici

Istanbul Bilgi University
Kustepe Sisli Istanbul
Turkey

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