Area studies

Encyclopedia : A : AR : ARE : Area studies

In the humanities and social sciences, area studies is interdisciplinary research and scholarship pertaining to a particular geographical or cultural region. The term exists primarily as a general description for what are, in the practice of scholarship, many heterogeneous fields of research. Fields are defined differently from university to university, and from department to department, but common area-studies fields include:

Middle Eastern studies (or Near Eastern studies)
Asian studies
* East Asian studies (Sinology, Japanology)
* South Asian studies
African studies
Latin American studies
* South American studies
*Central American studies
Caribbean studies
American studies (in the United States this has traditionally referred primarily to North America and especially the U.S.)
European studies
* English studies
* French studies
* German studies
* Italian studies
* Slavic studies

Other interdisciplinary research fields such as women's studies (also known as gender studies), and Ethnic Studies (including African American Studies, Asian American Studies, Latino/a Studies, and Native American Studies) are not part of area studies but are sometimes included in discussion along with it.

Contrast the term cultural studies.

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