Slavic studies (North America),
Slavonic studies (Britain and Ireland) or
Slavistics (borrowed from Russian
славистика) is the
academic field of
area studies concerned with
Slavic areas,
Slavic languages, literature, history, and culture. Originally, a Slavist (from Russian
славист) or Slavicist was primarily a
linguist or
philologist researching Slavistics, a Slavic (
AmE) or Slavonic (
BrE) scholar. Increasingly historians and other humanists and social scientists who study Slavic area cultures and societies have been included in this rubric.