by Evelyn Alsultany
about Evelyn Alsultany
Evelyn Alsultany is Associate Professor in the Department of American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California. She is the author of Arabs and Muslims in the Media: Race and Representation after 9/11. She is co-editor with Rabab Abdulhadi and Nadine Naber of Arab and Arab American Feminisms: Gender, Violence, and Belonging and with Ella Shohat of Between the Middle East and the Americas: The Cultural Politics of Diaspora. She is also guest curator of the Arab American National Museum’s online exhibit, “Reclaiming Identity: Dismantling Arab Stereotypes” (www.arabstereotypes.org).
Challenging Stereotypes
Abstract: Critical discussions about television’s patterns of representation sometimes devolve into reductive assessments of “positive” or “negative,” “good” or “bad” images. In this essay, Evelyn Alsultany describes how the action-drama 24 employed innovative strategies to avoid stereotypes of Arab/Muslim terrorists but argues that sympathetic portrayals of individuals won’t alleviate television’s consistent representation of Arabs and Muslims primarily within the context of terrorism.