The Origin, Nature and Challenges of Area Studies in the United States

The Author: David SzantonSocial anthropologist based in Berkeley,

CaliforniaWorked for:

Ford FoundationSocial Science Research CouncilUniversity of California, Berkeley

Area Studies:An enterprise seeking to know, analyze and

interpret foreign cultures through multidisciplinary lens.

Multidisciplinary lens is essential because no single academic discipline is capable of capturing and conveying full understanding of another society and culture.

Area StudiesUS social scientists and humanists proclaim

universalsFundamental Role of Area Studies:

To deparochialize US- and Euro-centric visions of the world in the core social science and humanities disciplines, among policy makers and in the public at large.

Failures due to intellectual institutional and political struggles.

Growth of Area Studies in the USBeginning of the 20th century to WWII

Focused on European history and literature, classics and comparative religion

Produced no more than 60 PhDsToday

Thousands of universities offer different courses related to area studies

Hosting of foreign studentsOverseas research

Growth of Area Studies in the US2 types of Area Studies Units

1. Area Studies departments Usually offer undergraduate degrees

Language Literature History Religion

Multidisciplinary

Growth of Area Studies in the US2 types of Area Studies Units

2. Area centers Institutes and programs Lecture series; workshops; conferences; research

and curriculum development projects etc.

What prompted the dramatic internationalization of US higher education?1950s

Western Europe was the only familiar area of the world beyond the US US ignorance of the rest of the world was striking

Perceived and direct challenges and threats from Soviet Union, China, and emerging Cold War

Prospects of decolonization in Africa and Asia

What prompted the dramatic internationalization of US higher education?Many presumed that the adoption of US

institutions and procedures would bring rapid development.

Western models, examples and techniques might not work at all

More culturally and historically contextualize knowledge of other areas in the world was necessary for the US to assist them and to compete against Soviet Union

What prompted the dramatic internationalization of US higher education?Major US research universities:

- Berkeley -Columbia -Cornell- Chicago -Harvard - Michigan- Pennsylvania - Princeton -Wisconsin- Yale

InstitutionsForeign Area Fellowship Program

Large-scale national competition in support of Area Studies Training in the US Two years of inter-disciplinary and language

training on a

What prompted the dramatic internationalization of US higher education?Fundings

Fullbright Offered teaching and exchange program from 1946

Foreign Area Fellowship Program Offered by Ford Foundation Large-scale national competition in support of Area

Studies Training in the US Two years of inter-disciplinary and language training

on a selecting country or region of the world Two years for in-depth overseas dissertation research

and writeup. Started giving awards in 1951

What prompted the dramatic internationalization of US higher education?Other external fundings

Fulbright Program ofr Mutal Education and Cultural Exchange

Department of Education (language teaching and public service)

National Science FoundationNational Endowment for the HumanitiesPrivate foundations (Mellon, Henry Luce, Tinker)Rockefeller FoundationCarnegie Endowment for International PeaceJohn D. and Katherine T. MacArthur Foundation

What prompted the dramatic internationalization of US higher education?Dispersion of intellectual interests in Area Studies

Evolving political relations of the US to the countries in questionThe changing interest of public and private fundersThe academic disciplines and personal and political commitments of

the academics in each fieldThe shifting mix of disciplines, and thus methods and debates, that

have dominated research fieldsEvolving relations, debates, and collaborations with scholars within

the country or region of studyThe age of the fieldThe difficulty of learning languages of the regionDramatic events or conflicts within the areaThe intellectual and political demands of populations from the

region residing in the USEase of access for field, archival, or collaborative research

Critiques of Area Studies1. Simply a political movement

1. Motivated by Cold War obsolete2. Component of and support to US hegemony

Szanton: With the termination of Cold War in 1991, access to scholars, archives, field studies and collaboration, research agendas have expanded to include fields such as civil society, cultural change, ethnic resurgence, etc.

Critiques of Area Studies2. Merely ideographic

- Primarily concerned with descriptions- merely a source of data and information and does not propose theory

Author: data collection and theory development are intertwined and interactive. Without a reasonable coherent theoretical structure or narrative in mind, a researcher would not know what to look for, how to interpret it, or how to write up as a publishable article, essay or book

Critiques of Area Studies2. Merely ideographic

- Primarily concerned with descriptions- merely a source of data and information and does not propose theory

Author: not only have the area studies fields been thick with theory and theoretical debates, but they have also regularly generated theoretical developments and debates within the disciplines as well.

Critiques of Area Studies3. Uncritical use of politically biased categories,

perspectives, and theories of colonialist scholar administrator predecessors/ attempt to maintain or expand hegemonic control.

Author: It is partly true. (Foucault) political power and position and the generation of knowledge are inevitably entwined.

Critiques of Area Studies4. Globalization

- erasing boundaries, and forcing homogenization of localities, cultures and social and economic practices

Author: Globalization rarely erases all other social or cultural forms and processes. It produces disparities in power and wealth and its manifestations are always mediated and shaped by local histories, structures and dynamics.

Critiques of Area Studies4. Globalization

- erasing boundaries, and forcing homogenization of localities, cultures and social and economic practices

Author: dramatic changes in the conceptualization, procedures and to some extent, the programmatic organization of Area Studies are nor resulting from increased recognition of the importance of processes of transnationalism as an element of globalization

Suggestions regarding the future evolution of Area Studies,Attention:

Population diasporaRecontextualizing the prior focus on the

nation-state as the primary actor and ultimate natural unit of international analysis. (NGO, multiple forms of global capitalism, social institutions, etc)

CollaborationWell trained Area Studies scholars, as

outsiders, may discern significant elements of a society or culture that insiders tend to take for granted.

Thank you