Advancing Comparative Area Studies: Analytical Heterogeneity and Organizational Challenges

Advancing Comparative Area Studies responds to questions about the analytic range of the comparative area studies (CAS) field and the organizational challenges it must navigate. The chapters demonstrate that CAS can cover a broad range of scholarship beyond cross-national comparisons, including interpretive work across different sites, sub-national comparisons at the sectoral level, and inter-regional comparisons addressing topics such as the behavior of regional powers. The volume also considers how the institutional architecture of research universities can be adapted so as to better support cross-regional research and collaboration without sacrificing the quality of area expertise.

Ariel I. Ahram is Professor at the Virginia Tech School of Public & International Affairs in Arlington. He is an Associate of the Institute of Middle East Studies of the GIGA, the German Institute for Global and Area Studies. He earned his PhD in government and MA in Arab studies at Georgetown University and BA at Brandeis University.

Patrick Köllner is Vice President of the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA), Director of the GIGA Institute for Asian Studies, and a professor of political science at the University of Hamburg. He studied politics and management as well as modern Japan studies at the universities of Konstanz and Essex and holds a doctorate and a habilitation in political science from Humboldt University of Berlin and the University of Trier, respectively.

Rudra Sil is Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania, where he has taught since obtaining his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. His scholarly interests encompass Russian/post-communist studies, Asian studies, labor politics, international development, qualitative methodology, and philosophy of social science.