Why Area Studies Matters (opinion)

"Area studies, the interdisciplinary study of region-specific knowledge, is under threat in the United States. Some area studies programs are facing immediate dismantling by red-state legislatures. Others, at private universities or in blue states, are more likely to experience a slow decline through dozens of small cuts that may leave them untenable. While most area studies programs are small, their loss would ripple through a wide range of disciplines, impoverishing teaching, research and scholarship across the humanities and social sciences."

"Most contemporary area studies departments were developed and funded in part to meet perceived U.S. national security needs during the Cold War. Nonetheless, area studies programs have, from the outset, reached far beyond policy concerns. They should be saved, not (just) out of concern for the national interest, but because they are fundamental to our modern universities. Area studies have helped to pluralize our understanding of the drivers of history, the sources of literary greatness and the origins and uses of the sciences,"

Area studies programs across the United States face immediate dismantling in some states and gradual attrition in others, risking widespread damage to humanities and social sciences. These programs, often small, were partly funded during the Cold War for national-security reasons but have long served broader intellectual purposes. Area studies pluralize historical and literary perspectives, challenge Western normativity, and sustain language and regional expertise. Federal support such as FLAS fellowships is threatened, and reliance on national-security or soft-power arguments may not restore funding. Sustainable futures require commitments beyond state-centered security rationales.

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