An imagined America : language, literacy, identity, and coloniality at Syrian Protestant College, 1866-1920 / by Lisa R. Arnold.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Arnold, Lisa R., Author.

Series:

International exchanges on the study of writing

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Syrian Protestant College--History.

Syrian Protestant College.

American University of Beirut--History.

American University of Beirut.

Literacy--Lebanon--Beirut.

Literacy.

Transnational education--Lebanon--Beirut.

Transnational education.

Postcolonialism--Lebanon--Beirut.

Postcolonialism.

Universities and colleges--Social aspects--Lebanon--Beirut.

Universities and colleges.

Physical Description:

xv, 233 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Fort Collins, Colorado : The WAC Clearinghouse; University Press of Colorado ; Denver, Colorado : University Press of Colorado, [2025]

Summary:

"An Imagined America presents a historical, transnational, translingual, and decolonial perspective on questions of identity, literacy, language, culture, and citizenship. In examining a variety of English- and Arabic-language archival documents from the founding of Syrian Protestant College in 1866 (today the American University of Beirut) until the fall of the Ottoman Empire in 1920, Lisa R. Arnold shows how transnational and translingual negotiations among faculty, students, and administrators, as well as the local and regional community, produced a tenuous and sometimes unsettling vision of America for foreigners and locals alike. As her account shows, transnational and translingual discourses provide the backdrop and motive for the assertion of coloniality in contexts of literacy education such as that of Syrian Protestant College. An Imagined America allows scholars and educators in rhetoric and writing studies, education, and related fields to consider how literacy education in English has, and often continues to, construct an imagined America that is both grounded on and reproduces colonial epistemology. Such constructions work to uphold exclusionary practices that are all too vivid in our world today"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Imagining America

Syrian Protestant College within its historical context

Syrian Protestant College and the exportation of America

Specters of America in students' rhetorical activism at Syrian Protestant College

Composing America at Syrian Protestant College

Imagining a transnational and translingual past, present, and future.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

Other Format:

Online version Arnold, Lisa R., 1979- Imagined America

ISBN:

9781646428212

1646428218

OCLC:

1569977468