Area Studies in the 21st Century
UCL
9-10 November 2015
This conference gathers together scholars of all disciplines, working on a range of
geographical ‘areas’, to discuss the contemporary state of Area Studies, the challenges and
opportunities facing it, and to develop an agenda for future development. It will reconsider
the intellectual foundations of Area Studies; articulate standards of excellence across
research, teaching, and public policy; and assess the institutional forms best suited to
fostering excellence, innovation, and impact.
Conference organizers:
Centre for East European Language Based Area Studies (CEELBAS): www.ceelbas.ac.uk
UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES): www.ucl.ac.uk/ssees
Centre for the Advanced Study of the Arab World (CASAW): www.casaw.ac.uk
White Rose East Asia Centre (WREAC): www.wreac.org
Centre for Russian, Central and East European Studies (CRCEES): www.gla.ac.uk/crcees
Part of the 2015 SSEES Centenary:
www.ucl.ac.uk/ssees/centenary
Supported by the Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the British Academy:
Academic contacts: Zoran Milutinovic z.milutinovic@ucl.ac.uk and Wendy Bracewell
w.bracewell@ucl.ac.uk ;
Administrative contact: James Perkins j.a.perkins@ucl.ac.uk
Keynote Speakers
Professor Mark Beissinger
Princeton University
(on Russia)
Professor Theodore C. Bestor
Harvard University
(on Japan)
Professor Wendy Bracewell
University College London
(on Eastern Europe)
Professor Robert Gleave
University of Exeter
(on the Middle East)
Dr Susan Hodgett
University of Ulster
(on Area Studies & Canada)
Professor Edward Roger Owen
Harvard University
(on the Middle East)
Detailed Rationale
Area Studies cannot be grounded in the significance of specific geographical areas. All ‘areas’ are
historically contingent, with fluid and often contested boundaries; their very coherence as areas –
whether geopolitical, socio-economic, or cultural-historical – shifts over time, often depending upon
the perspective of who is viewing, from where, and for what purpose.
The history of UCL SSEES exemplifies this point. Founded during the First World War, SSEES formed
when powerful ideas about national identity and the right to ‘national self-determination’ collided
with the collapse of empires to produce a new map of Europe. Its raison d’être then evolved over
the twentieth century, first within the context of ideological conflict and the Cold War and
subsequently within the ‘post-Soviet’ era of economic ‘transition’ and political ‘integration’ (or
disintegration into ‘ethnic conflict’). All of these paradigms – imperial, national, and post-colonial;
geopolitical, strategic, and ideological; transitional and transformational – are not restricted to (our)
area but encompass global processes. They define areas not just in terms of the ebb and flow of
‘relevance’ (and funding streams), but also shape categories of perception and analysis.
Although Area Studies often sit in an uneasy relationship with the disciplinary structures of modern
universities (and journals), they also offer multi-disciplinary expertise and insight, as well as
experimental arenas for cross-disciplinary cooperation. The conference seeks to explicate an
intellectual rationale for integrating ‘area’ as a conceptual frame (and institutional framework) into
academic structures (universities, centres and schools, research projects, teaching programmes) and
intellectual life (disciplines, the production of knowledge).
We are especially interested in the following themes:
Place
Area Studies is predicated upon the significance of place – the specificities of language, culture,
demography, economy, and history. In challenging the hegemony of the nation and nation-state
(and methodological nationalism) as the de facto unit of spatial organization (and many academic
structures), Area Studies highlights the contingency of any ‘area’ and invites comparative and
transnational projects. Furthermore, the contemporary world is witnessing the multiplying positions
of globalization, a process that area studies is uniquely suited to address. The conference will
examine the theoretical and methodological potentials of ‘place’ as well as its historical framing in
contemporary Area Studies.
Discipline
The interdisciplinary benefits conferred by Area Studies institutions are not inherent to Area Studies
as such but are an often latent potential requiring cultivation. Scholars arrive with disciplinary
expertise and are often pulled in the direction of discipline by professional structures, whether in
academic publishing or promotions criteria. The conference considers the interfaces between Area
Studies and the disciplines, including the benefits (and pitfalls) of multidisciplinary and
interdisciplinary projects as well as cross-disciplinary fertilization. We envisage several themes:
How can Area Studies critique the production of knowledge? Rather than just considering how
discipline can tame area, we seek to reverse the equation, exploring the often unacknowledged
significance of area to discipline. How does area shape normative assumptions and ‘fundamental
assumptions’ of disciplines?
Does the interface between area and discipline work differently across the humanities and the social
sciences?
Much of the humanities presupposes the importance of area, though the term ‘area’ is generally
occluded by other units of spatial organization, especially national history/literature/culture or areas
not always perceived in such terms (‘Europe’). Implicit hierarchies between and normative views of
area often shape academic practice within these disciplines: scholars of some areas (e.g. French
literature) can easily claim general disciplinary insight (Literature), whereas others (Czech literature)
produce only local (national/area) knowledge. Do some areas generate more ‘translatable’ insights
than others? How does area intersect with the significant disciplinary cross-fertilization that has
occurred in recent decades between history, literary and cultural studies, and anthropology?
On the other hand, many of the social sciences (especially political science, neo-classical economics,
and sociology) have come to rely on behavioural theorising that denies the relevance of area
(cultural, historical, individual factors). Can Area Studies – attention to the local, specific, and
contextual – allow these disciplines to interrogate (and modify) such claims to universal knowledge
(laws)? How can the advancement of empirical quantitative methods serve less to mask the
relevance of area than to reintroduce the importance of area specificities and to give impetus to
new theoretical methods and approaches?
Institutions
Area Studies exist formally on the level of institutions and take a range of configurations: longestablished, regionally specific schools; university departments and centres; non-area-specific areastudies schools; inter-university area organizations; area-specific research centres and groups;
professional bodies; and academic journals. Scholars located in or affiliated with such institutions
tend to identify themselves as discipline-specialists with an interest in area rather than areaspecialists, and many institutions divide academics into discipline-based departments or clusters.
The conference will consider two themes:
Research:
What is the practical ‘value added’ of area studies institutions? How can and should they facilitate
cross-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary dialogue but also attract funded research projects? How can
such dialogue promote self-reflexivity?
Teaching:
Recent changes in the funding of Higher Education in the UK has favoured undergraduate teaching
and potentially undermined post-graduate programmes (due to cuts in scholarship support). How
can degree programmes incorporating Area Studies be made more attractive to undergraduate and
post-graduate students? How should Area Studies be taught, especially in relation to disciplines?
How should language be integrated into such programmes? How should the interface between Area
Studies and discipline be negotiated at doctoral level, especially as most jobs are within disciplinebased departments?