Patrick Köllner / Rudra Sil / Ariel I. Ahram

Extending the Horizons of Comparative Area Studies: Analytical Heterogeneity and Organizational Challenges

Chapter in Edited Volume | 2025


  • Abstract

    This chapter serves as an introduction to this volume, the second of two books dedicated to the articulation of “comparative area studies” (CAS). The chapter reviews the rationale for, and defining elements of, CAS as a distinct variant of cross-regional comparative analysis. It also lays out the objectives and differentiators of this second volume in the wake of discussions, critiques, and extensions that followed the publication of Comparative Area Studies: Methodological Rationales and Cross-Regional Applications published in 2018. It enumerates the new connections and agendas being showcased in this volume, taking into account the practical institutional and organizational challenges of promoting further CAS research without trading away the distinctive payoffs of area expertise. The chapter also previews the organization and content of the remainder of the volume, which is organized into five parts.

    Published in

    Advancing Comparative Area Studies

    Editor(s)

    Patrick Köllner

    Rudra Sil

    Ariel I. Ahram

    Publisher

    Oxford University Press

    Pages

    1-26

    Location

    New York


    Prof. Dr. Rudra Sil

    Prof. Dr. Rudra Sil

    University of Pennsylvania


    Ass. Prof. Dr. Ariel I. Ahram

    Ass. Prof. Dr. Ariel I. Ahram

    Virginia Tech's School of Public and International Affairs, Arlington


    Roundtable on Advancing Comparative Area Studies

    German Institute for Global and Area Studies | 06/11/2025

    Roundtable on Advancing Comparative Area Studies

    Organiser: German Institute for Global and Area Studies Prof. Dr. Patrick Köllner (Organiser, Panelist), Prof. Dr. Rudra Sil (Panelist), Prof. Dr. Matthias Basedau (Panelist), Dr. David Kuehn (Panelist), Prof. Dr. Miriam Prys-Hansen (Moderator), Dr. Eileen Doherty-Sil (Panelist)

    Coming together for a roundtable, several contributors to "Advancing Comparative Studies: Analytical Heterogeneity and Organizational Challenges" (Oxford University Press 2025) launch the volume at the GIGA. They address the approach’s development in the past ten years and the content of the new book.

    Area Studies in Europe and North America and the Advent of Comparative Area Studies

    Conference | 07/09/2024 - 08/09/2024

    Area Studies in Europe and North America and the Advent of Comparative Area Studies

    First Peking Forum on Area Studies, Beijing International Studies University, Beijing Prof. Dr. Patrick Köllner (Speaker)

    Patrick Köllner presented a keynote speech at the First Peking Forum on Area Studies, speaking about recent developments around area studies on both sides of the Atlantic and how they contributed to the advent of comparative area studies, the signature approach of the GIGA.

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