Touching Language! Christian Junge postcolonial studies Ethics Arabic as foreign language language pedagogy knowledge production Arabic Studies academic language Area Studies This paper argues for using academic Arabic more actively in Arabic Studies in Germany. Based on an ongoing discussion at the Centre for Near and Middle Eastern Studies at the Philipps-Universität Marburg about the pros and cons of dealing more closely with academic knowledge production from the MENA region, this paper sheds light on the potentials of academic Arabic for non-native students and scholars. In the framework of postcolonial studies, it discusses linguistic, epistemic and ethic benefits of using academic Arabic in teaching and researching more actively and maps recent German initiatives to foster academic Arabic. As a conclusion, it calls for a close affective contact with Arabic: Daring to touch language and getting touched by language! Philipps-Universität Marburg Marburg Deutschhausstraße 9, 35037 Marburg 2019 2019-12-22 2020-01-18 Text article urn:nbn:de:hebis:04-0003-2019-235-80824 eng 2714728-9 13 1 https://journals.uni-marburg.de/0003/article/download/8082/8047 10.17192/meta.2019.13.8082 https://journals.uni-marburg.de/0003/2019/235/8082 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0