I wound up marrying a Japanese Africanist I met in graduate school in the states, and we now live in Japan. I was fascinated by Prof. Pultar's essay. I think it raises a number of issues that we who teach about the U.S. from outside its borders should keep in mind. However, I have some concerns, and of course a different perspective. As a non-US scholar Let us not confuse internationalization with Europeanization.
American studies is still in the process of being introduced in many African nations.
It is established and flourishing in Japan, despite problems related to the general crisis of universities here. With the breakup of the Soviet Union, changes were inevitable. Here in Japan the American Literature Association is actually larger than the umbrella American Studies Association. Even specialist dialogue sometimes takes on an air of unreality, although there are also excellent scholars here. Fortunately Russian scholars seem to be aware of the problems that they might face along these lines in the future.