Outline of academic disciplines

An academic discipline or field of study is a branch of knowledge, taught and researched as part of higher education. A scholar's discipline is commonly defined by the university faculties and learned societies to which they belong and the academic journals in which they publish research.

Collage of images representing different academic disciplines
Part of a series on
Research
List of academic fields
Research design
  • Research proposal
  • Research question
  • Writing
Philosophy
  • Constructivism
  • Empiricism
  • Positivism / Antipositivism / Postpositivism
  • Realism
    • Critical realism
    • Subtle realism
Research strategy
Methodology
Methods
Tools and software
  • Argument technology
  • Geographic information system software
  • Library and information science software
    • Bibliometrics
    • Reference management
  • Science software
    • Qualitative data analysis
    • Simulation
    • Statistics
Philosophy portal

Disciplines vary between well-established ones that exist in almost all universities and have well-defined rosters of journals and conferences, and nascent ones supported by only a few universities and publications. A discipline may have branches, and these are often called sub-disciplines.

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to academic disciplines. In each case an entry at the highest level of the hierarchy (e.g., Humanities) is a group of broadly similar disciplines; an entry at the next highest level (e.g., Music) is a discipline having some degree of autonomy and being the basic identity felt by its scholars; and lower levels of the hierarchy are sub-disciplines not normally having any role in the structure of the university's governance.

Humanities
Main articles: Humanities and Outline of the humanities

Performing arts

Visual arts

History

Languages and literature

Law

Philosophy

Religious Studies
  • History of Religion
  • Anthropology of Religion
  • Sociology of Religion
  • Psychology of Religion
  • Phenomenology of Religion

Theology

Social science
Main articles: Social science and Outline of social science

Anthropology

Archaeology
  • Biocultural anthropology
  • Evolutionary anthropology
  • Feminist archaeology
  • Forensic anthropology
  • Maritime archaeology
  • Palaeoanthropology

Economics

Geography

Political science
Main articles: Politics and Outline of political science

Psychology
See also: Branches of psychology, Cognitive science, Affective science, and Behavioural sciences

Sociology
  • Analytical sociology
  • Applied sociology
    • Leisure studies
    • Political sociology
    • Public sociology
    • Social engineering
  • Architectural sociology
  • Area studies
    • African studies
    • American studies
      • Appalachian studies
      • Canadian studies
      • Latin American studies
    • Asian studies
      • Central Asian studies
      • East Asian studies
      • Iranian studies
      • Japanese studies
      • Korean studies
      • Sinology (outline)
      • South Asian studies
        • Bengal studies
        • Dravidology
        • Pakistan studies
        • Sindhology
      • Southeast Asian studies
      • Thai studies
    • Australian studies
    • European studies
      • Celtic studies
      • German studies
      • Sociology in Poland
      • Scandinavian studies
      • Slavic studies
    • Middle Eastern studies
  • Behavioral sociology
  • Collective behavior
  • Community informatics
    • Social network analysis
  • Comparative sociology
  • Conflict theory
  • Criminology/Criminal justice (outline)
  • Critical management studies
  • Critical sociology
  • Cultural sociology
  • Cultural studies/ethnic studies
    • Africana studies
    • Cross-cultural studies
    • Culturology
    • Deaf studies
    • Ethnology
    • Utopian studies
    • Whiteness studies
  • Demography/Population
  • Digital sociology
  • Dramaturgical sociology
  • Economic sociology
  • Educational sociology
  • Empirical sociology
  • Environmental sociology
  • Evolutionary sociology
  • Feminist sociology
  • Figurational sociology
  • Futures studies (outline)
  • Gender studies
    • Men's studies
    • Women's studies
  • Historical sociology
  • Human ecology
  • Humanistic sociology
  • Industrial sociology
  • Interactionism
  • Interpretive sociology
    • Ethnomethodology
    • Phenomenology
    • Social constructionism
    • Symbolic interactionism
  • Jealousy sociology
  • Macrosociology
  • Marxist sociology
  • Mathematical sociology
  • Medical sociology
  • Mesosociology
  • Microsociology
  • Military sociology
  • Natural resource sociology
  • Organizational studies
  • Phenomenological sociology
  • Policy sociology
  • Psychoanalytic sociology
  • Science studies/Science and technology studies
  • Sexology
  • Social capital
  • Social change
  • Social conflict theory
  • Social control
    • Pure sociology
  • Social economy
  • Social philosophy
  • Social policy
  • Social psychology
  • Social stratification
  • Social theory
  • Social transformation
    • Computational sociology
    • Economic sociology/Socioeconomics
      • Economic development
      • Social development
  • Sociobiology
  • Sociocybernetics
  • Sociolinguistics
  • Sociology of aging
  • Sociology of agriculture
  • Sociology of art
  • Sociology of autism
  • Sociology of childhood
  • Sociology of conflict
  • Sociology of culture
  • Sociology of cyberspace
  • Sociology of development
  • Sociology of deviance
  • Sociology of disaster
  • Sociology of education
  • Sociology of emotions
  • Sociology of fatherhood
  • Sociology of finance
  • Sociology of food
  • Sociology of gender
  • Sociology of generations
  • Sociology of globalization
  • Sociology of government
  • Sociology of health and illness
  • Sociology of human consciousness
  • Sociology of immigration
  • Sociology of knowledge
  • Sociology of language
  • Sociology of law
  • Sociology of leisure
  • Sociology of literature
  • Sociology of markets
  • Sociology of marriage
  • Sociology of motherhood
  • Sociology of music
  • Sociology of natural resources
  • Sociology of organizations
  • Sociology of peace, war, and social conflict
  • Sociology of punishment
  • Sociology of race and ethnic relations
  • Sociology of religion
  • Sociology of risk
  • Sociology of science
  • Sociology of scientific knowledge
  • Sociology of social change
  • Sociology of social movements
  • Sociology of space
  • Sociology of sport
  • Sociology of technology
  • Sociology of terrorism
  • Sociology of the body
  • Sociology of the family
  • Sociology of the history of science
  • Sociology of the Internet
  • Sociology of work
  • Sociomusicology
  • Structural sociology
  • Theoretical sociology
  • Urban studies or Urban sociology/Rural sociology
  • Victimology
  • Visual sociology

Social work

Natural science
Main articles: Science, Outline of science, Natural science, and Outline of natural science

Biology

Chemistry
See also: Pure chemistry

Earth science
See also: Branches of earth sciences

Astronomy

Physics

Formal science

Computer science
Main articles: Computer science and Outline of computer science

Also a branch of electrical engineering

Mathematics
Main articles: Mathematics and Outline of mathematics

Pure mathematics

Applied mathematics

Applied science

Agriculture
Main articles: Agriculture, Outline of agriculture, and Agricultural science

Architecture and design
Main articles: Architecture, Outline of architecture, Design, Outline of design, and Applied arts
  • Architecture (outline)
    • Interior architecture
    • Landscape architecture
  • Architectural analytics
  • Historic preservation
  • Interior design (interior architecture)
  • Landscape architecture (landscape planning)
  • Landscape design
  • Urban planning (urban design)
  • Visual communication
  • Industrial design (product design)
  • User experience design
    • Interaction design
    • Information architecture
    • User interface design
    • User experience evaluation
  • Decorative arts
  • Fashion design
  • Textile design

Business
Main articles: Business, Outline of business, and Business education

Divinity

Education
Main articles: Education and Outline of education

Engineering and technology
Main articles: Engineering and Outline of engineering
See also: Technology and Outline of technology

Chemical Engineering

Civil Engineering

Educational Technology

  • Instructional design
  • Human performance technology
  • Knowledge management

Electrical Engineering

Materials Science and Engineering

Mechanical Engineering

Systems science

  • Chaos theory
  • Complex systems
  • Conceptual systems
  • Control theory
    • Affect control theory
    • Control engineering
    • Control systems
    • Dynamical systems
    • Perceptual control theory
  • Cybernetics
    • Biocybernetics
    • Engineering cybernetics
    • Management cybernetics
    • Medical cybernetics
    • New Cybernetics
    • Second-order cybernetics
    • Sociocybernetics
  • Network science
  • Operations research
  • Systems biology
    • Computational systems biology
    • Synthetic biology
    • Systems immunology
    • Systems neuroscience
  • System dynamics
    • Social dynamics
  • Systems ecology
    • Ecosystem ecology
  • Systems engineering
    • Biological systems engineering
    • Earth systems engineering and management
    • Enterprise systems engineering
    • Systems analysis
  • Systems psychology
  • Systems theory
    • Biochemical systems theory
    • Ecological systems theory
    • Developmental systems theory
    • General systems theory
    • Living systems theory
    • LTI system theory
    • Mathematical system theory
    • Sociotechnical systems theory
    • World-systems theory
  • Systems theory in anthropology

Environmental studies and forestry
Main articles: Environmental studies, Outline of environmental studies, and Forestry

Family and consumer science

Human physical performance and recreation

Journalism, media studies and communication
Main articles: Journalism, Media studies, Communication, Communication studies, and Outline of communication

Law
Main articles: Law and Outline of law

Library and museum studies
Main articles: Library science, Outline of library science, and Museology
  • Archival science
  • Archivist
  • Bibliographic databases
  • Bibliometrics
  • Bookmobile
  • Cataloging
    • Citation analysis
  • Categorization
  • Classification
  • Collections care
  • Collection management
  • Collection Management Policy
  • Conservation science
  • Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage
  • Curator
  • Data storage
  • Database management
  • Data modeling
  • Digital preservation
  • Dissemination
  • Film preservation
  • Five laws of library science
  • Historic preservation
  • History of library science
  • Human-computer interaction
  • Indexer
  • Informatics
  • Information architecture
  • Information broker
  • Information literacy
  • Information retrieval
  • Information science (outline)
  • Information systems and technology
  • Integrated library system
  • Interlibrary loan
  • Knowledge engineering
  • Knowledge management
  • Library
  • Library binding
  • Library circulation
  • Library instruction
  • Library portal
  • Library technical services
  • Management
  • Mass deacidification
  • Museology
  • Museum education
    • Museum administration
  • Object conservation
  • Preservation
  • Prospect research
  • Readers' advisory
  • Records management
  • Reference
  • Reference desk
  • Reference management software
  • Registrar
  • Research methods
  • Slow fire
  • Special library
  • Statistics

Medicine and health
Main articles: Medicine, Healthcare science, Outline of health sciences, and Biomedical sciences
See also: Outline of medicine and Branches of medicine

Military sciences
Main articles: Military science and Outline of military science and technology

Public administration
Main article: Public administration

Public policy
  • Agricultural policy
  • Commercial policy
  • Cultural policy
  • Domestic policy
  • Drug policy
    • Drug policy reform
  • Economic policy
  • Education policy
  • Energy policy
  • Environmental policy
  • Food policy
  • Foreign policy
  • Health policy
    • Pharmaceutical policy
    • Vaccination policy
  • Housing policy
  • Immigration policy
  • Knowledge policy
  • Language policy
  • Military policy
  • Science policy
    • Climate change policy
    • Stem cell research policy
    • Space policy
    • Technology policy
  • Security policy
  • Social policy
  • Public policy by country

Social work
Main article: Social work
  • Child welfare
  • Community practice
    • Community organizing
    • Social policy
  • Human Services
  • Corrections
  • Gerontology
  • Medical social work
  • Mental health
  • School social work

Transportation
Main articles: Transport and Modes of transport

See also
  • Academia (outline)
  • Academic genealogy
  • Curriculum
  • Interdisciplinarity
  • Transdisciplinarity
  • Professions
  • Classification of Instructional Programs
  • Joint Academic Coding System
  • List of fields of doctoral studies in the United States
  • List of academic fields
  • International Academic Association for the Enhancement of Learning in Higher Education

References
    • Abbott, Andrew (2001). Chaos of Disciplines. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-00101-2.
    • Oleson, Alexandra; Voss, John (1979). The Organization of knowledge in modern America, 1860-1920. ISBN 0-8018-2108-8.
    • US Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences. Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP). National Center for Education Statistics.
    This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.