Despite the current lull, my guess is that we will see a rise in grad
students in the world-system field for two reasons. One is the marked
increase in "globalization" and the recognition of the same. However
fadish that may be, the reality is that international trade and
organization is rising geometrically. The second reason is demographic.
World-system research saw its biggest gains in the last 10-15 years.
Given that few assistant professors chair dissertation committees, and
that PhDs take 6-8 years, there is maybe a 10-15 year lag in new PhDs
training future PhDs in an area. So it is conceivable that the "boom"
of the 1970s and 80s will produce a "boomlet" in the 90s and beyond.
This does not, of course, take attrition into account. We also lose
students to "migration" as we probably train a disproportionate number
of international students. If gaged in terms of the ISA (where
Wallerstein now presides) rather than the ASA, we may not be losing
membership at all. As for graduate programs that offer
world-system study, let me briefly plug my own at Emory University in
Atlanta. Rick Rubinson, John Boli (formerly Boli-Bennett) and myself in
world-systems, and Alex Hicks and Tien-Lung Liu in comparative politics
make up our concentration in Comparative Political Economy. We offer
relatively generous funding, but only have 6-7 slots per year. Other
places that come to mind are SUNY-Binghamton, Johns-Hopkins, Arizona,
Stanford, Cornell, Wisconsin, Kansas St., and Duke. Apologies to any I
forgot.
Terry Boswell