Academic fields are constructed, not discovered, and resist fixed definition.

Evidence

Fields, of course, are made. They acquire coherence and integrity in time because scholars devote themselves in different ways to what seems to be a commonly agreed-upon subject matter. Yet it goes without saying that a field of study is rarely as simply defined as even its most committed partisans—usually scholars, professors, experts, and the like—claim it is. Besides, a field can change so entirely, in even the most traditional disciplines like philology, history, or theology, as to make an all-purpose definition of subject matter almost impossible. — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 147

Categorization

• DEFINE: Establishes the constructivist premise that scholarly fields are made and changeable, framing Orientalism as a constructed field.
• XREF: Carries into Islamophobia readings the fundamental constructivist move: a field of study is an artifact built by scholars, not a natural entity.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 147