Rethinking the Middle East as West Asia (Transregional Connections and the Future of Area Studies)

A richly interdisciplinary challenge to mainstream approaches to area studies through focus on the Middle East's relationship to West Asia

Rethinking the Middle East as West Asia reframes a region long constrained by Euro-American strategic narratives. By situating the Middle East within its relationships to wider Asia, the volume opens a fresh analytical lens on power, mobility, and connection across the continent. Moving beyond state-centric and siloed approaches, it illuminates the dense and rapidly evolving ties that bind East and West in new and consequential ways. Rethinking the Middle East as West Asia brings together a wide group of interdisciplinary scholars from the Middle East, China, and the West to rethink how knowledge about the region is produced. It offers a methodological invitation to question inherited geopolitical categories and to develop comparative and transregional approaches suited to the contemporary global landscape.

Contributors:
Lori Allen SOAS, University of London, London, UK
Zhang Chuchu Fudan University, Shanghai, China
Holly Danzeisen Arab Council for the Social Sciences/Inter-Asia Partnership, New York City, USA
Sun Degang Fudan University, Shanghai, China
Jiuzhou Duan Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
Adam Hanieh SOAS, University of London, London, UK
Marya Hannun University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
Arang Keshavarzian New York University, New York City, USA
Laleh Khalili University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
Zachary Lockman New York University, New York City, USA
Sajjad Rizvi University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
Alam Saleh Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
Seteney Shami Arab Council for the Social Sciences, Beirut, Lebanon
Mohammed Al-Sudairi Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
Yuting Wang American University of Sharjah, Sharjah, UAE
Zakiyeh Yazdanshenas University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
Liu Yi Shanghai University, Shanghai, China
Ma Yue Beijing International Studies University, Beijing, China
Rafeef Ziadah King’s College London, London, UK