International Studies in the context of the North American University

Abstract

This essay traces the 20^th Century precursors to the development of “transatlantic studies” in the early 21^st century.  The essay argues that “transatlantic studies” was a natural response to the crisis around “area studies” that emerged after the end the Cold War.  The end of the Cold War as well as intellectual, ideological, structural and fiscal changes in higher education in the United States prompted area studies scholars to reconsider and to reconfigure the interdisciplinary disciplines of area studies. “Transatlantic studies” provided a more fluid and dynamic framework for transnational interdisciplinary scholarship than had traditional area studies.  In turn, the birth and development of «area studies» owed much to the earlier fields of “international studies” and “American studies”.