WORKSHOP on

Research Methodology in Area Studies

Organized byCentre for the Study of Nepal and Trans Himalayan Region

Faculty of Social Sciences, Banaras Hindu UniversityFrom 3rd Oct.-10th Oct. 2015

Recent Research Trends In

Dr. A. GangatharanDepartment of History

Faculty of Social Sciences Banaras Hindu University

On 05th Oct. 2015

Area Studies is interdisciplinary in approach, multidimensional in focus and deals with a range of issues covering socio-cultural and economic aspects of a nation or a region in a broader framework.

Area studies has been an integral part of historical discipline for a long time .

It gained momentum in the modern period with the outbreak of Imperialism accompanied by scramble for markets.

According to Edward W. Said, “Orientalism” came to Prominence in the late 18th century with a result of Area Studies.

Soon it paved way for the emergence of Philological Studies, Ethnography, Race Relations Comparative Religion and Heritage Cultural Studies

In the beginning of the 19th century the area studies slowly began to preoccupy with International Relations since Vienna Congress. The study largely thrived along the lines of diplomatic history.

It also came under the influence of hair-splitting theories and mind boggling ideas

Marxism Nazism and Fascism also had their field day in this discipline .

The World wars, formation of Global Organizations(League of Nations and UNO) and Cold war enlarged the scope of the subject.

Emergence of New International Order; development of Environment Studies; Identity Questions and Philosophical Divergence have further advanced the cause of the study.

Formation of Regional Economic Blocks, Global Terrorism and International Trade- Communication and Network Relation have further added impetus to the field of the study.

Area Study does not confine to any set of Ideational Position , but giving way to different views and discourses.

Against method

Paul Feyerabend

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

Thomas Kuhn

Interpretation of Cultures

Clifford Geertz

Science as a VocationMax Weber

Structural anthropologyClaude Lévi-Strauss

Area Studies in the Age of Globalization

Dr. David Ludden

online version of essay in FRONTIERS: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad. Winter 2000, 1-22.

India's Worlds And U.S. Scholars, 1947-1997

Joseph W. Elder

THANK YOU Special Thanks to:Pappu Kumar YadavB.A.(Hons) History 5th Sem.Banaras Hindu University