Area Studies

The School of Interdisciplinary Area Studies (SIAS) is part of the Social Sciences Division. It represents a major commitment by the University to enhancing teaching and research in Area Studies. The School brings together six units: the African Studies Centre, the Latin American Centre (including the Brazilian Studies Programme), the Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies, China Studies (including the Contemporary China Studies Programme), the Russian and East European Studies Programme, and the Contemporary South Asia Studies Programme. In addition, the School encourages academic co-operation with a number of related academic activities which have their principal home in the Humanities Division.

The units comprising SIAS admit a total of around 100 graduate students between them every year. The School’s academic staff also supervise doctoral students and teach on a range of undergraduate and graduate programmes in other parts of the University.

The School is devoted to research and graduate teaching in academic disciplines which attempt to understand the complexity and the interrelatedness of society through anthropology, economics, politics, history, sociology and culture. Its teaching and research seek to take into account both the insights provided by the separate disciplines and the contextualisation provided by in-depth knowledge of specific regions and countries.