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 or branches and distinguishing lines are often both arbitrary and ambiguous.

Historically (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 than the other three. Today's 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, physics, chemistry, biology, and engineering. In the opening decades of the 20th century, education, sociology, and psychology took their place in the university curriculum.

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.

Mathematics and computer science

Mathematics

Algebra
Applied mathematics
Analysis
Calculus
Game theory
Geometry
Information theory
Number theory
Probability theory
Statistics
Topology
For a more extensive list, see list of mathematics articles, and list of mathematics lists.

Biological anthropology
Anthropological linguistics
- Synchronic linguistics (or Descriptive linguistics)
- Diachronic linguistics (or Historical linguistics)
- Educational
- Ethnolinguistics
- Sociolinguistics
Archeology
Cultural anthropology
- Anthropology of religion
- Anthropology of technology
- Economic anthropology
- Ethnography
- Ethnohistory
- Ethnology
- Ethnomusicology
- Mythology
- Political anthropology
- Psychological anthropology
- Urban anthropology
Historical anthropology
Medical anthropology

Vexillology*

Sociology

For a more extensive list see Subfields of sociology

Humanities and arts

Area studies (sometimes called cultural studies)

American studies
African studies
Asian Studies
Catholic studies
Canadian Studies
Chinese studies
Eastern European studies
Esperanto studies
German studies
International Studies
Japanese studies
Latin American Studies
Irish studies
Islamic studies
Jewish studies
Russian studies

Choreography
Dance analysis
Dance notation
Dance studies
Ethnochoreology
History of dance
Performance, somatic practice

English Studies

also see Literature and linguistics

English linguistics
English sociolinguistics
Discourse analysis in English
Composition studies
World Englishes
History of the English language
Teaching English as a Second Language
American literature
Australian literature
British literature (literature outside England may be written in Celtic languages)
- English literature
- Northern Ireland literature
- Scottish literature
- Welsh literature
Canadian literature (a significant amount of Canadian literature is also written in French)
Indian literature
Irish literature
New Zealand literature
Nigerian literature

Film studies and film criticism

Animation

Literature and cultural studies

Literatures

English literature
French literature
Gaelic literature
German literature
Hindi literature
Hebrew Literature
Portuguese & Brazilian literature
Spanish literature
Yiddish literature
other languages' and cultures' literatures

History

Gender studies

Professions / Applied sciences

Urban planning
Industrial design, Product design
Graphic design, Interface design
Architecture
Interior design (also see family and consumer science below)
Landscape architecture

Foodservice management
- Hotel administration
Consumer education
Housing
Interior design (also see architecture and environmental design above)
Nutrition (also see medical sciences below)
Textiles

Forestry

Health sciences

Medical Sciences
- Dentistry
  - Dental hygiene and Epidemiology
  - Dental surgery
  - Restorative dentistry and Endodontics
  - Orthodontics
  - Oral and maxillofacial surgery
  - Pedodontics (Pediatric dentistry)
  - Periodontics
  - Prosthodontics
  - Implantology
- Human medicine
- Midwifery
- Nursing
- Veterinary medicine
Nutrition (also see family and consumer science above)
Optometry
Pharmacy
Physiotherapy
Public health
Speech-Language Pathology

Journalism and mass communications

Law

Canon law
Comparative law
Constitutional law
Civil law
Criminal law
- Criminal procedure
- Criminal justice (also see Public Affairs and Community Service below)
  - Police science
  - Forensics
Islamic law
Jewish law
Jurisprudence
Manx law
Philosophy of law

Library and information science

Archival Science
Bibliometrics
Citation analysis
Human information behaviors
Informatics
Information architecture
Informetrics
Knowledge organization
Museum informatics
Scholarly communication
Scientometrics

Military science

Public affairs and community service

Criminal justice (also see Law above)
- Corrections
Nonprofit administration
Parks and recreation management
Public administration
- Industrial and labor relations (also see Business above)
Social work
- Gerontology

External links

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.

Academic disciplines | Education lists | Education

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Natural sciences

Earth sciences