Siraj Ahmed - Archaeology of Babel: The Colonial Foundation of the Humanities

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

A preliminary version of this books introduction was published in Critical Inquiry39 (Winter 2013), 2013 by The University of Chicago. Thanks to Richard Neer, W. J. T. Mitchell, and CIs editorial board for being receptive to an unusual argument and asking me to push it further.

Though I lack the words to express it, I know how fortunate Ive been to have an editor as perceptive in all things as Emily-Jane Cohen. Thank you for taking my ideas seriously in the beginning and giving them the time they needed to develop (I promise not to miss another deadline).

The students in the CUNY Graduate Center class I taught on Critical Method and Colonial Law modeled a theoretical open-mindedness Id otherwise assume was no longer in fashion. I wish I could talk to academics like them for the rest of my life.

Sunil Agnani, Alice McGrath, Tim Alborn, Boris Maslov, Ilya Kliger, Kristina Huang, Bill Warner, Madeleine Dobie, Chris Hill, Chris Bush, Daniel OQuinn, Elaine Freedgood, Dohra Ahmad, Chris Taylor, and Anjuli Raza Kolb gave me opportunities to present this project. Audiences at Brown University, Birkbeck College, University of London, the CUNY Graduate Center, the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia Universitys Maison Franaise, Columbias Heyman Center for the Humanities, the University of Toronto, and New York University offered helpful feedback. Particular thanks to Betty Joseph, Sandra MacPherson, Ben Baer, Gauri Viswanathan, Michael Allan, Tanya Agathocleus, Nancy Yousef, Suvir Kaul, the late Srinivas Aravamudan, Stathis Gourgouris, Ania Loomba, Ajay Rao, Veli Yashin, Joseph Massad, Moustafa Bayoumi, Paul Narkunas, Frank Crocco, Shireen Inayatulla, Sandra Cheng, and Claudia Pisano for their comments on these and other occasions. Informally, Teena Purohit responded to my inchoate ideas with wise advice. Stanfords external readers provided penetrating analyses both before I began the manuscript and after I had finished it. Shoumik Bhattacharya read the whole manuscript, expertly, in draft. It has greatly benefited as well from Christine Gevers awe-inspiring command of English, among other languages, and eagle-eyed editing skills. With equal expertise, Gigi Mark shepherded this book through Stanfords production process, and Stephanie Adams guided the presss effort to promote it.

I (really) couldnt have finished this book without a year-long Award for Faculty from the National Endowment for the Humanities, and I couldnt have received that fellowship without the support of Walter Blanco, Michael Dodson, and Tim Watson. Grants from CUNYs Research Foundation enabled me, among other things, to consult William Joness manuscripts in the British Library and the National Library of Wales and to retranslate his many French translations of Hafiz in Aix-en-Provence. Im deeply grateful to Olivier Coutagne for helping me with the latter task. An award from CUNYs Office of Research helped with publication costs.

The photograph of Shirin Abedinirads stunning installation Babel Tower