Context includes the circumstances and conditions which "surround" an event. Within specific academic disciplines, it has the following meanings:
In archaeology, the context (physical location) of a discovery can be of major significance. See Stratification. More precisely, an archaeological context is an event in time which has been preserved in the archaeological record. The cutting of a pit or ditch in the past is a context, whilst the material filling it will be another. Multiple fills, seen as layers in archaeological section would mean multiple contexts. Structural features, natural deposits and inhumations are also contexts. By separating a site into these basic, discrete units, archaeologists are able to create a chronology for activity on a site and describe and interpret it.
In computer science, context is the circumstances under which a device is being used, e.g. the current occupation of the user. (see also context awareness)
By advancing contextual expertise—expertise in the languages, cultures, histories, and institutions of particular nations and world regions—these centers and programs enhance the capacity of the faculty, students, and staff to engage the world's diverse vernaculars and institutions and the movement of peoples and practices across the world.
Contextual expertise comes to be valued to the extent that privileged institutions value the problems or treasures of another place, and are willing to invest to learn how to avoid its threat, or to harness its insights.
Exploring the relationship between contextual expertise and global public relevance might offer a framework that helps us move beyond enrollments and local pressures, and helps us to define our commitments to diversity with a system of accounting that befits a university of the world.
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