Daily Star (DS): Why is American Studies important for a poor country like Bangladesh, which needs to improve the standard of living of its people?
Golam Sarwar Chowdhury (GSC): American Studies could work as a conduit that could bring in ideas and thoughts from the US and the West that are absolutely essential for strengthening important institutions in Bangladesh. If the country can't continue to go the democratic way, development of its economy will become extremely difficult. American Studies is an academic discipline that doesn't just teach about the US. It also helps in broadening the understanding of ideas related to a democratic and secular society.

DS: How can American Studies help now that the US has a conservative leadership that has shown it doesn't really care about its image in the world and anti Americanism is rampant in the world?
GSC: American Studies is not about fundamentalism and conservatism, it is against the forces that impede progress and use religion to deny the basic rights to the citizens. American Studies is taught and learnt in the academy, which is preponderantly liberal. In the US universities and colleges the ratio of conservatives to liberals is about 1:10 in the direction of liberalism. The US federal government led by Bush is indeed very right wing but the American people have high hopes in the ideals of the founding fathers. I am sure that the ascendancy of the neo-cons will not last for a long time.

DS: From an American Studies point of view, what would you say about the rise of religious fundamentalism in the US?
GSC: The US was a country founded by the early pilgrims who saw the land as a "city atop the hill." The newly discovered land promised unrestricted religious freedom for the puritans who crossed the Atlantic following religious persecution in England. From then onwards, religion remained a strong factor in American culture. Consider the sermons of Cotton Mather and his peers. They all spoke about an angry God and threatened hellfire to those who didn't abide by God's law. This strong religious spirit still remains internalised in American society.

The US's belligerent tendency to police the rest of the world is only a secular version of the same religious value that made the early pilgrims think of themselves as the chosen people destined to show light to an otherwise benighted world. American Studies, however, is entirely secular, and questions the hegemonic role of the US in terms of its relationship with the rest of the world.

In the annual meeting of the American Studies Association held in Atlanta, there were panels that addressed the US hegemonic and imperialistic foreign policy spearheaded by Bush. The US government was also severely condemned for violating human rights in Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib prison. Even though President Bush has been reelected because of a neo-conservative revival in the American heartland, the academic community throughout the country remains largely liberal. Therefore, ideas conducive to the betterment of humanity continues to flow out of American academia. This, of course, is good for all of us around the globe who respect humanity and believe in human progress.

DS: Research and teaching of American Studies in Bangladesh is supported by the US government. Do you thing it'll be possible to have the proper perspective given the source of funding?
GSC: It's true that whatever is done with American Studies in Bangladesh is done with the help of funding procured from the US State Department. Yes, if a meaningful research, study, and teaching of American Studies is to continue in this discipline, we've to look for other sources of funding, because a continuous dependence on the American establishment is bound to affect the objectivity and neutrality of the research of American Studies in Bangladesh or in South Asia.

DS: Having studied in the US for six years, you are very familiar with it. The American media generally looks only for disaster and natural calamities when trying to portray Bangladesh. Why is it so?
GSC: The Americans love news relating to sensations, disasters and spectacles. Therefore the media caters to popular demand while treating Bangladesh. If the country can show spectacular growth and development, I'm sure the media is going to give a positive image of this country. Already, the adjective moderate is being used a lot to describe Bangladesh.

DS: Is the US really interested in Bangladesh and will your country be of any importance to the superpower in the future?
GSC: Yes it is, and it'll remain interested in Bangladesh in the future, too. For, the people of Bangladesh are truly tolerant and are against extremism. Also, as China and India continue to grow phenomenally over the next few decades, the US might find Bangladesh very convenient to follow developments in those two countries closely.

Daily Star columnist Ron Chepesiuk is a visiting professor at the University of Chittagong.