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[curious]

OK, I'm going to sound like an idiot, but could someone please define "Area Studies"?  This field (is it a field?) has always  been mysterious to me because the name is so abstract.  So:

 I know it has to do with race or geography or something, but what departments have area studies?  

Do you get a degree in it, or is it an informal appellation?  

Is a certain kind of methodology implied by the term?

[objective]

Most larger universities have programs (or depts) called: "African Studies" or "Asian Studies" or "Latin American Studies' which sort of serves as an umbrella for a variety of classes from different disciplines (literature, history, economics, art) that deal with that area. So, a class may be offered in Spanish but cross-listed with Latin American Studies if it is about (for example) Chilean Literature.

Actually, "area studies" as a field is a child of the Cold War when the US wanted to produce specialists in different regions of the world... the better to control them ! mmmwwwahhhhh.

Area Studies has gone through some rocky times.. with 9/11, though, middle east studies has burgeoned.

Most people get jobs that are in ONE discipline (history, language, english, spanish) but may teach courses that are cross-listed. Students may or may not 'major' in an area studies program. Obviously, smaller colleges with fewer resources are less likely to have these kind of programs.

[?]

In my experience, area studies is geographical (Near Eastern Studies, Latin American Studies), whereas ethnic studies (or "American Studies") covers Jewish Studies, African American Studies, Latino Studies, and so on.  Spanish is a lang. and lit. dept.

[obj]

Helloooo....

Middle Eastern Studies may be a geographical area, but in the university you can get a degree (even a masters) in middle eastern studies with a concentration in, for example, literature, but in a 'studies' program you'd be required to take more classes in other disciplines as well - whereas in arabic literature, you wouldn't.

i know spanish is a language and literature dept. no duh.

I was saying that some getting a master's in latin american studies might take classes that originate in the Spanish dept.

jeez.

[curious]

Thanks so much, Objective; your answer is really helpful.  I'm curious about some of what you said.  Can you explain why 9/11 caused problems, and for which areas?  Have area studies morphed from a geographical focus onto a community/diasporic population/ethnic group focus (this in response in part to the points made in the post that follows yours)?

[?]

"Middle Eastern Studies may be a geographical area, but in the university you can get a degree (even a masters) in middle eastern studies with a concentration in, for example, literature"

No, not in my experience.  That's why it's called MES.  There is also ME languages and literatures.  Studies are by definition interdisciplinary, drawing from several programs and departments, l & l depts. usually are not.

[Obj]

? said:

> No, not in my experience.  That's why it's called MES.  There
> is also ME languages and literatures.  Studies are by
> definition interdisciplinary, drawing from several programs and
> departments, l & l depts. usually are not.

Ok, maybe I did get that wrong.

MES is fundamentally interdisciplinary meaning the student leaves with a smattering of everything - but related to that "geography"

That includes a literature class if the student wants.

But there may not be a concentration. I stand corrected.

[Objective]

curious wrote:

> Thanks so much, Objective; your answer is really helpful.  I'm
> curious about some of what you said.  Can you explain why 9/11
> caused problems, and for which areas?  Have area studies
> morphed from a geographical focus onto a community/diasporic
> population/ethnic group focus (this in response in part to the
> points made in the post that follows yours)?


I like thinking about these sorts of things.

Actually, what I mean was that 9/11 reinvigorated area studies. For awhile (before 9/11), these programs (from what I understand) were somewhat threatened... because the demise of the cold war meant that they couldn't be justified anymore... so had a hard time finding funding. And there were political arguments for and against the area studies programs.

With 9/11, again, there are political justifications for area studies and so there is more money for it. Still, most jobs are found within disciplines.(at least from what i understand)

As for your second point (geography, diaspora etc) - it is an interesting question, I'm not sure I am qualified to answer.  Maybe "?" will enlighten us.

But I'll try to begin... 1.) as to the second post and American Studies. American Studies is different from other Area Studies (in my opinion) only because America is an Empire.  So, American Studies think they do everything... (I'm only partially kidding). American Studies IS a geography, but because it is an Empire, it also covers where "America" spread in the world, and where "the world" comes back and defines "America"

As for whether certain Area Studies programs study 'diaspora' - well, it depends on the program, I think... some of the professional associations (Middle East Association - MESA) do broaden the notion of "geography" to include intellectual work on diaspora etc.
I don't know if I'm answering your question, because I'm not sure if I understand it.

Best of luck.

[Diogenes]

Actually, classics is the "original" area studies (viz., the study of the language, literature, and history of the societies of the northern Mediterranean sea).  The notion that the concept of area studies originated in post cold-war high jinks is a bit naive educationally and historically myopic.

[?]

Fair enough.  Now you tackle that one about post 9/11.  Here lots of anti-terror money flowed into sciences, some into ME langs., but I don't think there's been a realignment of the sort curious posited.  However, I haven't been conferencing lately, so I don't know the national scene right now.

[Area Studies]

Diogenes wrote:

> Actually, classics is the "original" area studies (viz., the
> study of the language, literature, and history of the societies
> of the northern Mediterranean sea).  The notion that the
> concept of area studies originated in post cold-war high jinks
> is a bit naive educationally and historically myopic.


I'll find you "evidence"

[Objective]

Diogenes,

I will respectfully submit that we are proceeding from different ideas of what constitutes "area studies" ... you may be right in a broad sense that Classics is "area studies" but in my view, Area Studies (in the idea of Formal Programs) represents a particular development in Academic knowledge-making. Perhaps I should restate my point - area studies wasn't 'founded whole hog' in the Cold War era, but came to a certain prominence - as is stated below.  

Here is part of my "evidence":  

It is from this URL:  http://www.nyu.edu/rectors/bender.html

International studies came late to the American university, and the imperatives of the cold war gave them a sudden and particular prominence in American social science. This history partly explains why American academics are at this moment concerned with rethinking international studies and why such thinking is best done in cosmopolitan settings such as this. The current discussion generally begins with the cold war, but I think it is worth going back a bit farther into American intellectual and academic history.

The animating idea of area studies was to combine disciplinary expertise in a social science discipline with knowledge of the languages, history, and culture of a specific and delimited foreign area. There were obvious political motivations revealed in the choice of areas studied; they were strategic sites in the cold war. It was not accidental that Soviet and Chinese studies were the first to be developed. But here was also a long-standing intellectual agenda, one pushed by the Social Science Research Council and its funder, the Rockefeller Foundation, since the 1920s: the areal and thematic focus might serve to counter the disturbing (to Rockefeller and the SSRC) hyper-specialization of the social sciences in the United States that, they thought, hampered real-life engagement with the world. Extending this point, there was an emphasis on interdisciplinary teams. A good recent account of how this worked may be found in Clifford Geertz's autobiography, After the Fact (1995). The hope was to foster at once the development of disciplinary protocols and descriptive (and predictive) knowledge of particular nations and regions.

[Objective]

And to continue my evidence,

http://www.umich.edu/~iinet/journal/vol11no2-3/kennedy.htm

In contrast to many other more state-centered societies, the U.S. has relied on an independent university sector to produce much of its foreign affairs expertise, of which area studies is an important part. While the federal government's investment in area studies was inspired by concerns about security in the cold war, it was rooted in the assumption that academic independence was an important check on governmental presumption in the definition of American interest. Those foundation, government and university leaders who helped to forge the alliance that produced federal funding for area studies in the 1950s and early 1960s recognized the value of academic freedom in the production of expertise about the world. The following decades confirmed that wisdom, even as it shook the alliances that produced it.

[huh]

Well, saying "classics" is the original area studies may be true, but calling it "classics" means it ignores the contribution of Africa made to 'classical' knowledge. In fact, the northern Mediteranean languages and literature and science and math all true on Egypt, for one. Egypt is not normally considered part of the classical world. This is mostly due to the fact that it was once colonized by the British, who named classics as being about Rome and Greece, completely ignoring the fact that both Greek and Roman Empires colonized Africa.

This, of course, leaves aside Eastern Asia with its own "classical civilizations".

[Diogenes]

Actually, huh, you reinforce my point.  Of course there are many Mediterranean civilizations not studied within "classics"--including Egypt (not a lot otherwise going on in Northern Africa except Carthage), but also the Phoenicians, Persians, and all the other cultures of the eastern Mediterranean (not to mention the kingdoms of Judea).  But that's just the point: Latin American area studies doesn't proclaim itself the study of Canada and America (although obviously both countries have influences on Latin America), and "classics" (which is a bit older than the Brits--ever heard of the Renaissance?)  is well aware of the influence of cultures like Egypt and Persia on Greece and Rome (although usually people in classics avoid the anachronism of referring to "Greece" as an entity, since the modern nation state Greece--or anything approximating it as--is a very, very new thing, almost entirely absent until after the end of the Ottoman empire).

I'm not sure what "the northern Mediterranean languages and literature and science and math all true on Egypt, for one" is supposed to mean, but it sounds precious.