New Area Studies (NAS) is the result of ongoing debates in Area Studies. While some researchers strive for disciplinary recognition, others stress the importance of ethical research in the social sciences and humanities. At the Centre for European and International Studies Research (CEISR), we focus on this ethical approach. We see NAS as a framework that helps rethink methodologies, knowledge production, and explore how research communities can go beyond disciplinary silos.
At CEISR, our approach to NAS also seeks a greater knowledge and understanding of people and places. It approaches social, cultural, political and economic life in a globalising world in ways that are multi-layered, non-linear, and transcending national boundaries.
NAS moves away from one-size-fits-all theories and instead promotes specific, situated approaches — and it values narratives and storytelling as vital tools for capturing diverse lived experiences.
Therefore, NAS can be understood as a methodological framework that helps address contemporary challenges. While this may not seem new to scholars in the social sciences and humanities, global inequalities in knowledge production are proof that we need to take this ethical approach more seriously.
What is new about NAS is an authentic engagement with critiques of Area Studies (such as orientalism, epistemicide, co-optation by the powerful) that results in a different approach to doing research. This new approach encourages a critical (self)assessment of the research enterprise.
Our research covers the following key topics:
- Marginality
- Positionality and methodologies
- Research Ethics and knowledge production
Methods
As we understand New Area Studies to be a methodological approach, a critical engagement with all research methodologies is at the centre of our discussions.
Publication highlights
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Barrios Aquino, M. (2024). New Area Studies as an Epistemological Framework: Some Reflections of Knowledge Production and Positionality. New Area Studies 4(3). https://doi.org/10.37975/NAS.81.
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Stewart, S., and Barrios Aquino, M. (2025). ‘Stranger views’: Researching marginality and (non)belonging among migrants experiencing homelessness in the UK. The British Journal of Sociology.
Research groups
Decolonising Spaces research group
Discussions about NAS cut across all CEISR’s research groups. We also have a designated New Area Studies Working Group, that meets regularly to develop our approach to this emerging area of study.
Discover our areas of expertise
Russian studies is one of our areas of expertise within our Area Studies research – explore the others below.
African studies
We're building knowledge on conflict in West Africa, with a particular focus on issues in the West African Sahel.
French studies
Through our research, we're exploring the politics of France and French-speaking countries in the world.
Russian and Eurasian studies
We're learning about the issues on the EU's eastern borders, and how the UK and EU should react.
Interested in a PhD in Area Studies and International Development?
Browse our postgraduate research degrees – including PhDs and MPhils – at our Area Studies and International Development postgraduate research degrees page.