From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
An academic discipline,
or field of study, is a branch of knowledge which is taught and researched at the college or
university level. Disciplines are defined (in part), and recognized
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.
Overview
The University of Paris in 1231
consisted of four faculties: Theology, Medicine, Canon Law and Arts.[1] Most
academic disciplines have their roots in the mid- to late-19th
century secularization of universities, when the
traditional curricula
were supplemented with non-classical languages and literatures, social sciences such as political
science, economics
and public administration, and natural 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,
and corrections,
also emerged in the universities. Finally, interdisciplinary
scientific fields such as biochemistry and geophysics gained prominence as their
contribution to knowledge became widely recognized.
New fields of study are often created through extending the
ideas, theories, and methods of more traditional disciplines. For
example, Freud created a sub-field of psychology with his new
perspective of psychoanalysis.
There is no consensus on how some academic disciplines should be
classified, e.g., whether anthropology and linguistics are social sciences disciplines or humanities disciplines.
More generally, the proper criteria for organizing knowledge into
disciplines are also open to debate.
An asterisk (*) denotes a field whose academic status is
debated.
- See also Branches
of history
- See also List of
languages, Branches of linguistics, Anthropological linguistics
- See also Branches of philosophy
- See also List of
religions
- See also Branches of anthropology
- See also Branches of
archaeology
- See also Branches of area studies
- See also Branches of
geography
- See also Branches of political science
- See also Branches
of psychology, Types of psychotherapy
- See also Branches of sociology
- See also Branches
of astronomy
- See also Branches of earth sciences
- See also Branches of life
sciences
- See also Branches of
chemistry
- See also Branches
of physics
- See also Branches of computer science and ACM Computing Classification System
- See also Branches of
mathematics and AMS Mathematics Subject
Classification
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- Scriptural study and languages
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- See also Branches of engineering
- See also Branches of
medicine
Human physical
performance and recreation*
Notes
- ^
History of Education, Encyclopædia Britannica (1977, 15th
edition), Macropaedia Volume 6, p. 337
See also
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