TO THE EDITOR:
Africa has often been shortchanged as an area for academic study. This is particularly true in the field of history. Up until through much of the twentieth century, many prominent historians continued to operate under the antiquated notion that Africa had no history. Asia and the Middle East have not been as thoroughly dismissed but were usually understood through heavily-skewed orientalist lenses, defined by colonialism. This means that some of the most exciting modern work is done in these previously discounted areas, but it also means that many institutions still undervalue these areas in history. Unfortunately, the History major at UNC, while a highly ranked academic program with amazing professors, structurally contributes to this undervaluing. When a student becomes a history major they have to choose a focus within which they take most of their history courses. The department maintains separate focuses in Modern Europe, East European/Russia, and Medieval Studies. However, Africa, the Middle East and Asia are somehow clumped to together as a single area of focus. This continuation of academic degradation of non-Western areas is not acceptable in the modern era. Some might dismiss this problem by pointing to majors available with focuses on these areas in other departments like AAAD. Such a critique ignores the unique value of history’s methodologies, and the fact that such a major is also available for Europe. Others might say this simply reflects the constraints of a limited number of history professors with these focuses, but that exonerates the department from hiring choices they made to continue this situation. Finally, there is the fact that the history major is popular because of its flexibility. Validating regions with their own focus area would not have to mean a reduction in flexibility if the department offered more courses about these regions. History is an evolving subject, and if tracks of study are truly necessary in the discipline, having Africa, Asia, and the Middle East lumped together does history students at UNC a disservice.
Alexander Peeples
Junior
History
