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  • Diversity in the United States and Abroad:What Does It Mean When American Studies Is Transnational?
  • Emory Elliott (bio)

Dedication

I dedicate this address to three remarkably productive and courageous women scholars with whom I have had the privilege to work over the course of their careers:

First, Professor Nellie McKay, who passed away early in 2006, and whose courageous life and valuable work were celebrated at a wonderful conference held by her colleagues at Madison in April. Nellie was a pioneer in African American literature and a splendid mentor and dissertation director to a large number of PhDs, many of whom spoke eloquently about her gifts at her memorial.

Second, Professor Tao Jie of Beijing University, who retired recently and who now lives in Oakland and is here tonight. I met Professor Tao during my first visit to China in 1986. As early as the 1950s, she was doing research on African American authors such as Charles Chestnut. During the Cultural Revolution, she was forced to leave her profession for several years. She returned in the 1980s to train a very high percentage of the PhDs in American studies who are teaching in China's universities today.

Third, Professor Viola Sachs, who recently retired from the University of Paris VIII. Having fled Poland with her family during the war, she grew up in Rio de Janeiro and returned to Warsaw in 1954, where she rose to full professor in American studies. Her family was threatened in 1968, and they left everything they owned and fled to Paris, where she again became a full professor. She directed many PhD students who were drawn to work with her because of her on work on the American imaginary and the American Renaissance. She directed the dissertations of many, including several scholars from northern and southern African and Arab countries. [End Page 1]

Wilderness and Wrath

In August of 1967, a time of American military escalation in Vietnam and political unrest at home, the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. asked Americans, "Where do we go from here?" He said, "In order to answer that question, we must first honestly recognize where we are now." Calling for an end to the war, King said: "I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted. I speak for the poor of America who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at home and death and corruption in Vietnam. I speak as a citizen of the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken. I speak as an American to the leaders of my own nation."1 Dr. King's words are still timely as we witness thousands of coalition soldiers and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi people being killed and maimed in a war that vast numbers of people believe to be unjustified and illegal. Today, as so many of us stand aghast at the path the U.S. government has taken, I believe it is our responsibility to follow Dr. King's example and speak out as "citizens of the world" against American imperialism, militarism, and unilateralism, as well as the domestic intimidation that seeks to silence such critiques.

While as scholars and teachers we may not have the influence that King had or the reach to be heard by the nation's leaders, still, many ASA members have spoken out through their teaching and research, as well as in conference sessions and inaugural addresses. Throughout the nation's history, writers, artists, journalists, teachers, and public intellectuals have employed both explicit and subtle methods to critique the gaps between the expressed ideals of the United States and the lived realities, and so too have many American studies scholars used their research to examine and analyze from where we have come, where we are now, and to where we may be headed.

In this time of deep political division, national paranoia, and global uncertainty, scholars of the humanities, arts, and social sciences across the globe must learn from each other, share perspectives, and continue to broaden the range of ideas needed to bring about change. It is no accident that many...

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