Farewell Area Studies, Long Live Transfer Studies !

Contribution to Symposium "Area Studies as a Reflection of the World in Flux", Jagiellonian University of Kraków, Poland, Thu., Oct. 29, 2015My perspective is to look at the development of Area Studies to explore how this approach can be contemplated in our current process of globalization. The hypothesis is to contemplate area studies as a transitory moment in the organization of research, knowledge and teaching in social sciences. I am hoping to show that area studies are still relevant in " a world in flux ". As we consider them today, area studies are definitely an academic concern, a way to approach or structure research, but I see the concept as predetermined by three cultural processes that reach beyond academia: 1. The Empire/barbarians dichotomy 2. The development of national identities in the 19 th century 3. The rise of interconnected knowledge in contemporary academic structures