Welcome to the ‘backstage’ of Their America, which we conceive as a kind of meta-theater, designed to stage a rigorous, unfolding global colloquy of the world’s opinions and impressions of America, this most generous and intolerant, acute and obtuse, self-sacrificing and self-serving, praised and vilified of nations. Though the world has never been more illuminated, America remains, in many ways, the elephant in a dark room, whose most well-intentioned actions are being increasingly distrusted and misunderstood as it steps on the toes (or heads) of its co-inhabitants. We aim to show the room to the elephant, and the elephant to the room, in the optimistic belief (but what alternative to optimism?) that this cannot help but help them both.
Hence the flag of Their (or There) America above. America from the other side: america percepta. Not what it is, but what it is for others.
And hence the phenomenological timeline, chronicling the history not of America, but of what it has been to others. A state–of mind–at least as important and influential, especially in this time, as the nation of America itself. For, when esse est percipi, america percepta matters more.
Where is the history of this hugely influential state, whose impact is felt as much in America as anywhere? Where is its Leaves of Grass? You who’ve come here from another place, it is your country, but woefully unarticulated and poorly understood, especially by Americans. Give it voice!
To submit material to the archive, or to help with the project in other ways, please contact your theater’s directorial staff.
Sponsor This website was partially funded by a Minor Research Grant from the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies, York University.
General Editor Geoff Hamilton, University of Toronto, Canada
Directorial Staff
Outsiders in America: Geoff Hamilton, University of Toronto, Canada
Americas: Prof. Stacey DiLiberto, Valencia College, United States; Prof. Dylan A. Cyr, University of Western Ontario, Canada
Asia: Prof. Nao Nomura, Saitama University, Japan; Nicholas Ferns, Monash University, Australia
Middle East: TBA
Africa: TBA
Europe: Saskia Tielens, TU Dortmund University, Germany
Project Members
Prof. Jason Blake, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
Yael Cohen, University of Tel Aviv, Israel
Dr. Jean Coleno, Dawson College, Canada
Dr. Tony Fong, Post-doctoral Fellow at the Centre for the Study of the United States, Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto, Canada
Prof. Sirène Harb, American University of Beirut, Lebanon
Prof. Waleed Hazbun, American University of Beirut, Lebanon
Prof. Laura E. B. Key, University of Liverpool, England
Dr. Anya Heise-von der Lippe, Free University of Berlin, Germany
Prof. Osamah Khalil, University of Syracuse, U.S.A.
Prof. Maurice Jr. M. Labelle, University of Saskatchewan, Canada
Prof. Jeehyun Lim, Denison University, United States
Prof. Nao Nomura, Saitama University, Japan
Prof. Andrej Stopar, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
Dr. Christa Vogelius, University of Alabama, United States
Prof. Alexa Weik von Mossner, University of Klagenfurt, Austria
Their America would like to thank Ikhlas Hussain, Angela Milano, and Mubina Visram for their contributions through the University of Toronto, Mississauga’s Research Opportunity Program, and Jean Coleno for his critical assistance in shaping this project’s early life.