The Department of East Asian Studies brings together scholars whose research focuses on the languages and cultures of China, Korea, and/or Japan. Our faculty’s scholarly interests range across East Asian history and geography and encompass a wide variety of disciplinary approaches, but we are united by a commitment to humanistic inquiry and by the belief that studying the cultures of other times and places enhances students’ understanding of themselves. We seek to provide our concentrators graduate with the linguistic expertise, critical spirit, and cultural awareness needed for a lifetime of engagement with East Asia.

In the conviction that linguistic competence is central to deep understanding, the department places special emphasis on rigorous language training. Concentrators gain competence in one or more East Asian languages through classes offered on campus, as well as by way of study abroad opportunities offered at a dozen leading universities throughout Asia, in cities from Kyoto to Seoul to Beijing. Our multilingual faculty teaches Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese, as well as Classical Chinese and Japanese. We also offer advanced classes on film, popular culture, gender, and literature taught in the original languages as a means of training students to interpret texts in sophisticated and nuanced ways. Concentrators, and especially Honors students, are encouraged to make use of their language skills in the research for their final projects.

EAS faculty and students collaborate actively with scholars in many different departments on campus in the humanities, social sciences, and beyond, and we also encourage students to expand their understanding of East Asia’s global impact by enrolling in classes offered by the Center for Race and Ethnicity and American Studies, which explore the experiences of the East Asian diaspora across the globe.