Bamboo and Bougainvillea: Literary perspectives on identity and belonging in contemporary Kuwait

At the heart of Communication and Critical Cultural Studies is a discipline that has been slowly expanding its borders around the issues of racism, sexism, ability, privilege, and oppression. As Latinx, African American, Asian Pacific American, Disability and LGBTQ Studies widen and shift the scope of Communication Studies, what often gets underplayed is the role of transnational Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) Studies. It is imperative that the experiences of transnational individuals who live and move between the region and the U.S. are centered. For this reason, the goal of this book is to begin to bring Middle Eastern and North African Communication and Critical Cultural Studies in conversation with Global and Transnational Studies. We ask, how can scholars make a space for transnational MENA Studies within Communication and Cultural Studies? What are the pressing issues? Thus, at a time where Arabs, Arab Americans, Iranians, and Iranian Americans are under attack by Western media and governments, it is crucial to center their voices from a transnational perspective that privileges their positionalities and experiences rather than continue to study them from a reductive Eurocentric lens. We seek to build on existing scholarship by including essays that theorize from a Communication and Critical Cultural Studies lens. This book aims to bring together work by established and new or emerging scholars.