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List of academic disciplines

This is a list of academic disciplines (and academic fields). An academic discipline is a branch of knowledge which is formally taught, either at the university, or via some other such method. Functionally, disciplines are usually defined and recognised by the academic journals in which research is published, and the learned societies to which their practitioners belong.

Each discipline usually has several sub-disciplines and distinguishing lines are often both arbitrary and ambiguous.

Historically (in medieval Europe) there where only four faculties in a university: Theology, Medicine, Jurisprudence and Arts, with the last one having a somewhat lower status than the other three. In modern times, this system differentiated and changed considerably.

A "*" denotes a field whose academic status is debated.

Contents

Natural sciences

Astronomy

Behavioral science

Biology

See also: #Anthropology, #Psychology

Chemistry

Physics

Earth sciences

Mathematics and computer science

Mathematics

Computer science

See also: ACM Computing Classification System

Social sciences

Anthropology

Archaeology

Communications

Economics

Ethnology

Geography

Linguistics

Political science

Psychology

Semiotics

Sociology

Humanities and arts

Area studies and ethnic studies (sometimes called cultural studies)

Art

Creative writing

Dance

Theatre

English literature

also see Literature

Folklore

Film studies and film criticism

History

Linguistics

see entry under social sciences

Literature and cultural studies

Literatures

Methods and topics

Music

Philosophy

Religious studies

Women's studies and gender studies

Professions / Applied sciences

Architecture and environmental design

Business

Education

Engineering

Ergonomics

Agriculture

Forestry

Family and consumer science

Journalism and mass communications

Law

Library and information science

Health sciences

Military science

Public affairs and community service

See also

Last updated: 05-13-2005 07:56:04