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
- Asian studies
- East Asian studies
- 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.)
Other interdisciplinary research fields, such as
women's studies,
gender studies, and
African American studies, are not strictly part of
area studies but are sometimes included in discussion along with it.