Overview -- Introduction: context : theorizing the new area studies / Susan Hodgett, and Patrick James -- New area studies around the globe -- New area studies in the borderlands of Asia / Mandy Sadan -- New area studies, the problem of Russia and "recursive nationhood" / Stephen Hutchings -- Area studies as refugee studies / Peter Gatrell -- Latin American studies : what have we achieved and where are we heading? / Christopher Sabatini, and Nicolas Albertoni Gomez -- Mastering the current : studying central asia in the 21st century / Claus Bech Hansen -- Muslim world studies or Middle East studies? / Rob Gleave -- Blurring the boundaries of history and fiction : re-imagining the past and re-defining the present through the lens of saudi women novelists / Zahia Smail Salhi and Ibrahim A. I. Alfraih -- Canada in comparative perspective -- Transarea studies : gendered mobility in North American literature / Caroline Rosenthal -- Area and circus studies: the case of and for a boundary crossing Quebec / Charles R. Batson -- Figurations of the border and new area studies / Claude Denis with Abdelkarim Amengay -- The state against Canadian studies / Colin Coates -- Reflections on new area studies -- What have we learned? / Susan Hodgett, and Patrick James -- About the contributors.