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List of academic disciplines
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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An academic discipline, or field of study, is a branch of knowledge which is taught or researched at the college or university level. Disciplines are defined and recognised by the academic journals in which research is published, and the learned societies and academic departments or faculties to which their practitioners belong.
Fields of study usually have several sub-disciplines or branches, and the distinguishing lines between these are often both arbitrary and ambiguous.
In medieval Europe, there were only four faculties in a university: Theology, Medicine, Jurisprudence and Arts, with the last one having a somewhat lower status. Current-day university disciplines have their roots in the mid- to late-19th century secularization of universities, when the traditional curriculum was supplemented by non-classical languages and literatures, and by science and technology disciplines such as physics, chemistry, biology, and engineering.
In the early 20th century, new disciplines such as education, sociology, and psychology were added. In the 1970s and 1980s, there was an explosion of new disciplines focusing on specific themes, such as media studies, women's studies, and Black studies. Many disciplines designed as preparation for careers and professions, such as nursing, hospitality management, corrections, also emerged in the universities. Finally, the visibility of such interdisciplinary scientific fields as biochemistry and geophysics increased, as their contribution to knowledge became widely recognized.
A "*" denotes a field whose academic status is debated. Note that the area into which some fields should be classified is debated, such as whether anthropology and linguistics are social sciences disciplines or humanities disciplines. Note that some people, particularly critical theorists are critical of the division of disciplines, and virtually every division of disciplines, as well as the structure of the concept of disciplines in general, is disputed by some.
A provocative question to ask might be "how many disciplines of study are there?" And an answer to this question could reasonably be that there is no end to the amount of academic disciplines one could have.
In academia today, it is a growing practice to incorporate fields of study that are created by extending the ideas, theories, and methods of more traditional disciplines. Also, new times and revolutionary thinkers can enhance or renew existing disciplines, or even create new disciplines altogether. For example, it can be argued that Freud created a new sub-field of psychology with his new perspective of psychoanalysis.
- American history
- Ancient history
- Chinese history
- Diplomatic history
- Ethnohistory
- European history
- History of science and technology
- Military history
- Modern history
- Intellectual history
- Cultural history
- Economic history
- World history
- See also Branches of history
- See also Branches of philosophy
- See also List of religions
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- See also Branches of anthropology
- See also Branches of archaeology
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- See also Branches of area studies
- See also Branches of economics
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- See also Branches of geography
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- See also Branches of political science
- See also Branches of psychology, Types of psychotherapy
- See also Branches of sociology
- Astrobiology
- Astronomy
- Astrophysics
- Observational astronomy
- See also Branches of astronomy
- See also Branches of earth sciences
- See also Branches of life sciences
- Analytical chemistry
- Biochemistry
- Materials science
- Cheminformatics
- Computational chemistry
- Quantum chemistry
- Inorganic chemistry
- Organic chemistry
- Physical chemistry
- Theoretical chemistry
- Interface and Colloid Science
- See also Branches of chemistry
- See also Branches of physics
- See also Branches of mathematics and AMS Mathematics Subject Classification
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- See also Branches of computer science and ACM Computing Classification System
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The factual accuracy of this section is disputed. Please see the relevant discussion on the talk page |
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- See also Branches of engineering
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- See also Branches of medicine
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- Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP 2000): Developed by the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics to provide a taxonomic scheme that will support the accurate tracking, assessment, and reporting of fields of study and program completions activity.
- Complete JACS (Joint Academic Classification of Subjects) from Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) in the United Kingdom
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