My Question to Jay Ulfelder - The Political Scientist

My Question to Jay Ulfelder about the study of political science and how to approach it.

This shall help many others whose interest lie in Political Science, hence posting it here. And I thank Jay for his valuble insight.

My Question :

Hello Jay,

I have been trying to ask few academic questions to political scientists. And about few times I ended  up asking the wrong person or my question did not fall with in the ambit of 'Area of Interest\Expertise' of the one to whom I have directed this question. But I am hopeful that I am talking to the right person this time around.

As a one who is interested in the discipline political science in general and International Relations in particular, I have always had this doubt of how to acomodate unrealistic interests of knowing everything under the sun. My interest lies in Area Studies - South Asian Studies indeed. Now under this leg what should I study about or in otherwords where should my starting point be? In myriad dimensions like History,Politics,Foreign Policy,Economy,Law,Cultural studies etc., how to begin with has become a pressing question for which I could not find an answer yet. Apparently I intend to apply to an American University in the future not too far from now. I am worried that my unguided reading could end up learning some thing that might not be considered as pre-requisitie/s for the course/degree I am going to apply in US. The truth is I am lost. And that is why I thought I must write this to you and seek clarity. Thanks for giving it a thought.

Jay's Response :

My main recommendation would be not to worry quite so much about it. You can't know everything, so start by trying to push that idea out of your head and focusing on something more realistic. For area studies, that usually means 1) knowing one or more relevant languages, 2) knowing the history of the area reasonably well, 3) being familiar with important cultural elements (e.g., literature and art) from the area, and 4) being conversant in the major political issues of the present in that area. If you want to go further than that before starting a program, I'd recommend picking one issue area in which you're especially interested (e.g., international relations theory or international law) and doing more advanced theoretical reading on that topic that is not area-specific. The rest should follow from course work and your own evolving interests. Good luck! -Jay