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Nationalism studies is an interdisciplinary academic field devoted to the study of nationalism and related issues. While nationalism has been the subject of scholarly discussion since at least the late eighteenth century, it is only since the early 1990s that it has received enough attention for a distinct field to emerge.
Contents
- History of the field
- Eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
- Nationalism studies as an academic field
- Journals
- Associations
- Research groups centres institutes and chairs
- Academic programs
- References
Authors such as Carlton J. H. Hayes, Hans Kohn, Elie Kedourie, John Hutchinson, Ernest Gellner, Karl Deutsch, Walker Connor, Anthony D. Smith, and Benedict Anderson laid the foundation for nationalism studies in the post-war period. In the early 1990s their ideas were enthusiastically taken up by academics, journalists, and others looking to understand and explain the apparent resurgence of nationalism marked by events such as the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Rwanda genocide, and the Yugoslav Wars.
History of the field
The development of the field can be divided into four stages: (I) the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when nationalism first emerged, and most interest in it was philosophical; (II) the period from the First World War until the end of the Second, when nationalism became a subject of formal academic inquiry; (III) the post-war period from 1945 to the late 1980s, when several sociologists and political scientists developed general theories of nationalism in the context of worldwide decolonisation and the 'ethnic revival' in the West; and (IV) the period following the fall of communism in 1989, which led to a surge of interest in nationalism and the crystallisation of nationalism studies as a field.
Eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
"Up to the First World War," Umut Özkirimli explains, "interest in nationalism was largely ethical and philosophical. The scholars of this period, predominantly historians and social philosophers, were more concerned with the 'merits and defects' of the doctrine than with the origins and spread of national phenomena." The nation-state was seen as a progressive stage in the historical development of human societies, and both liberals and Marxists expected that nationalism would eventually give way to a cosmopolitan world order. In this context, nations and nationalism were taken for granted, and most authors who discussed them were motivated by some political concern. There were no attempts to fashion a general theory of nationalism that was applicable to all cases. Some of the important authors in this period include: Johann Gottfried Herder, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès, Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Giuseppe Mazzini, Ernest Renan, and John Stuart Mill.
Nationalism studies as an academic field
Several universities organize degree and non-degree courses on nationalism. Boston University, University of London (particularly the London School of Economics), Central European University (Hungary), and University of Edinburgh are among the most prominent institutions where the study of nationalism occupies a central place. The Faculty of Humanities of Eötvös Loránd University (Hungary) has recently launched a comprehensive short-term program, dedicated exclusively to the study of nationalism.
Journals
One of the earliest journals devoted to the study of nationalism was the Canadian Review of Studies in Nationalism, founded at the University of Prince Edward Island by Thomas Spira in 1973. The journal "Nationalities Papers" was founded in 1971. Journals in the field include the following: