I want to study the Middle East, but I don't know if as a Political Scientist or a Historian...

[KevinYoungX]

Stephanie, I appreciate your thoughts on my situation. The idea of Cultural Studies has been something that has only briefly crossed my mind.

 

As for the white male & traveling issue: I do not mind being a minority. After all, I am a gay white guy studying in a majority heterosexual/normative African American city. Nevertheless sitting around and enjoying an Arab country and their amazing food (I really love their food) is not an option when those same people nearly all of the time (according to polling) think you should be killed or at least imprisoned.

 

Thanks for your time.

[-vive2ladifference]

Stephanie, I appreciate your thoughts on my situation. The idea of Cultural Studies has been something that has only briefly crossed my mind.

As for the white male & traveling issue: I do not mind being a minority. After all, I am a gay white guy studying in a majority heterosexual/normative African American city. Nevertheless sitting around and enjoying an Arab country and their amazing food (I really love their food) is not an option when those same people nearly all of the time (according to polling) think you should be killed or at least imprisoned.

Thanks for your time.

Just based on your comments in this thread, may I ask why you want to *study* the Middle East (i.e. as an academic) rather than just go into the foreign service/work at an IO? If you really think being gay is going to be a huge obstacle to language learning, field work etc. (I, by the way, don't), you may want to consider trying to make an impact from the outside.

[Stephαnie]

I don't mean actually going to the country, I just mean going to a local restaurant in your own neighborhood (assuming you live in a city) that has a mostly Middle Eastern clientele. There are places like that in any big city in the world, just as there are Indian restaurants, Chinese restaurants, Japanese restaurants, Italian restaurants.

 

This is one I know of in Vancouver: http://afghanhorsemen.com/

 

But I don't know about the specific city you are in.

 

Diaspora was the first thing that came to my mind, anyway, when I saw "development & evolution" of identity.

[KevinYoungX]

Hey -vive2ladifference, thanks for your suggestion. It is a good question. There are many ways to answer that question, but probably the main reason is that politicians are stupid and I do not want to get involved with those governmental loonies. Also - I simply like learning. To work for the government, you have to make yourself stupider everyday to fit in.

 

And by the way - I never said being gay was a big obstacle to learning foreign languages. I don't know where you got that from. I did, however, say that being gay in the Middle East is an issue. Anyone who studies the Middle East knows that being gay is either illegal in all of those countries (except Israel & Turkey) or pretty close to it.

[KevinYoungX]

Stephanie - that seems like a neat idea and I do those sorts of things a lot. This past winter, I was chosen for a leadership trip to Israel and got to meet a bunch of those sorts of communities (Druze, Bedouin, Palestinian, etc.). It is quite different, however, because I am in the safe premises of a Western country. The only problem, however, is that learning about different cultures in Western countries (say the US, Israel, France, Turkey, and others) only provides one with a piece of the picture.