1993 Reports

Post-Sovietology, Area Studies, and the Social Sciences

Walker, Edward W.

I do not intend to talk about Sovietology's past today. Rather, I plan to take up one of the questions I asked in my letter inviting everyone to this seminar: Is there a future not only for "post-Sovietology" specifically, but also for area studies generally, given the increasing pressures for specialization and commitment to positive, formal theory in the social sciences? The short answer I will offer is yes.