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Global and Regional Studies: Why the Name Change?

During the past nineteen years this program has been known as the Area and International Studies Program. The faculty proposed a change of this name, which the UVM Board of Trustees approved in February 2009. The new name takes effect with the Fall 2009 semester.

First, a little history:

Our program has been in existence since 1962, although it has not always operated under the same name. Between 1962 and 1990, it was called The Area Studies Program. The program was born at a time when the federal government deemed education in foreign languages and “area studies” as vital to Cold War-era national defense, and created funding mechanisms to support these initiatives through the National Defense Education Act (1958) (specifically as Title VI grants). Most “Area Studies” centers, programs, and departments in American universities were created during this period.

In 1990, the University approved the addition of “International” to the title, changing the program name to the The Area and International Studies Program. This change reflected the growing recognition that the program’s curriculum included issues and themes that transcend particular areas, with the addition of courses on themes ranging from international political organizations to the comparative study of principles such as democracy and human rights in various regions of the world.

So why another name change?

Here are seven reasons:

1. Many scholars, especially those trained during the past two decades, no longer consider their research and teaching to be related to U.S. geopolitical imperatives implied by the term “area studies” and have been seeking more politically-neutral terms.
   
2. During the past two decades, there has been a scholarly shift from a focus on the stasis, homogeneity, and essentialism of “areas” (which are places) to a focus on interrelationships and interdependencies that transcend and extend across and between those places (a stronger focus on processes).
   
3. The central unit of analysis implied in the terms “area studies” and “international studies” is the nation-state and its interactions with other nation-states. The terms “global” and “regional” encompass nation-states, but also emphasize the processes that connect and transcend nation-states. Current scholarship does not necessarily approach the nation-state as the primary focus of analysis, focusing instead on cross-border interconnections and interdependencies.
   
4. Lack of clarity about the meaning of “area” among current undergraduates and prospective students, especially as the Cold War has receded in popular memory.
   
5. “Regional” has become a widely recognizable label to replace the term “area.” A number of universities, among them some of this country’s most prominent and prestigious, have followed this trend of naming or renaming their programs with the phrase “Regional Studies,” either because they emerged before the 1950s and the NDEA, or because they wanted to distance themselves from the Cold War-era name of “area studies.” Such universities include Princeton; Harvard; Columbia; University of Miami; UC Santa Barbara; MIT; University of Wisconsin campuses in Oshkosh and Green Bay; Cornell; and American University.
   
6. The addition of a Global Studies program brings a crucial new dimension to this program, which is a focus on the social, political, economic, natural, and cultural relationships and interdependencies that extend beyond the boundaries of nation-states, even regions. We are no longer just a program that focuses on regions alone (i.e., Asian Studies, Latin American Studies, etc.), but now a program that also focuses on broader globalizing processes.
   
7. Current and prospective students consistently identify their interest in globalization and global themes. The success of Global Studies programs around the country during the past fifteen years confirms the recognizability of the term. Indeed, it is its very recognizability that moves us to place the term first in our new name, Global and Regional Studies Program, so that students searching for such programs can identify it easily.

Last modified March 17 2009 03:17 PM