Page 100 - Cultural Studies Volume 11

KATYA GIBEL AZOULAY
EXPERIENCE, EMPATHY AND

STRATEGIC ESSENTIALISM 1

ABSTRACT
This article examines the implications of the language of ‘cultural
diversity’ and ‘difference’ for syllabi, curricula and educators in academic
institutions. The author suggests an intellectual orientation which moves
away from the social vocabulary of ‘inclusion’ to that of ‘multivocality’.
Such an approach requires an interdisciplinary model whose departure
point anticipates the need to teach students the skills of interrogating the
relationship between power and knowledge and the political implications of
this link.
It is argued that such a perspective would encourage a more careful
consideration of bibliography and presentations which take into account
the complex diversity in the backgrounds of students—the target audience.
This would simultaneously diffuse the tendency to depoliticize and
domesticate race relations under the labels of ‘culture’ and
‘multiculturalism’ and require educators to assume that more than a few
have family histories which mirror heterogeneity and pluralism. The
embodiment of difference, however, may not always be visible. As a
pedagogical strategy, thinking explicitly about the assumptions behind
who, what and how one teaches will further the epistemological and
political objective of educating students to develop informed opinions as
well as help to cultivate a heightened sense of personal account-ability to
their responsibilities in the multiple communities to which they belong.
KEYWORDS
diversity; culture; multiculturalism; pedagogy; race; identity; politics

This article focuses on an inescapable core issue facing the American academy:
how to confront the question of ‘difference’ with its corollary questions, such as
the relationship between identity and politics on the one hand, and knowledge
and power on the other. It is an invitation to reflect on how the idea of
‘difference’ relates to, and is conceptualized and represented under, the umbrella
of culture. A number of difficult, and perhaps uncomfortable, questions will be