Harvard University: Arts & Sciences: East Asian Programs
Category Art and Social Sciences, Doctoral, Harvard University, Linguistics and Multilingual Studies, USATags Arts, Asian, East, Harvard University, Programs, Sciences
PhD in East Asian Languages and Civilizations
Admission. Strong preference will be given to applicants who are adequately prepared
to meet the language requirements of the doctorate. The GRE General test is required. The department considers applications only for the PhD degree. Those who have not completed the equivalent of the AM requirements must do so within their first two years of study. These requirements are:
- A minimum of eight completed half-courses normally representing one year’s graduate work.
- A language requirement comprised of
one of the three following options, met
by formal course work, or its approved
equivalent:
Chinese: Third-year level in modern Chinese; second-year level in literary Chinese; first-year level in Japanese or another East Asian language.
Japanese: Fourth-year level in modern Japanese; first-year level in classical
Japanese; first-year level in literary Chinese. Note: An extra year (two
half-courses) of classical Japanese may
be substituted for the fourth year of
modern Japanese.
Korean: Third-year level in modern Korean; second-year level in modern
Japanese; and, in some cases, first-year level in literary Chinese.
Note: Exceptions to any language requirements can only be made by written petition to the Director of Graduate Studies. - A substantial seminar paper (in lieu of an AM thesis), which must be approved and submitted to the department office one month prior to the degree award date.
Residence. Minimum of two years of full-time study (16 half-courses or equivalent). For financial residence requirements, see the GSAS Application and Guide to Admissions
and Financial Aid.
Program of Study. Each student’s program will be determined in consultation with a faculty advisor. Courses in other departments may be included whenever appropriate. A second research seminar paper is required of all students. Both papers must be completed prior to taking the General Examination.
Language Requirement. In addition to the language requirements for the AM (listed under Admission), other requirements normally include advanced work in a second East Asian language. This is normally defined as the third-year level in modern Japanese for students of Chinese and for some students of Korean, the second-year level in literary Chinese for students of premodern Japanese and for some students of Korean, and the first-year level in literary Chinese for students of modern Japanese. The minimum grade for all required East Asian language courses is B-. A reading knowledge of French, German, Russian, or other language by petition, must be demonstrated ordinarily by either passing an examination or by taking preapproved courses with a grade of B- or better. All lan-guage requirements must be completed prior to taking the General Examination.
General Examination. The student must pass a two-hour oral examination in three fields. These fields will be determined in consultation with the student’s advisor and other examiners. The fields will then be submitted to the curriculum committee for its approval. One of these fields should be chosen to demonstrate breadth in regard to a different area, discipline, or period. In addition to the oral examination, the student will be required to demonstrate proficiency in the primary language to be used in his or her research. Each subfield within the department will determine the means to test such proficiency.
Note: All course, language (including Western language), and seminar paper requirements must be completed prior to taking the General Examination. The General Examination normally must be taken before the start of the student’s fourth year in the department.
Prospectus. A prospectus of a student’s dissertation, of 15-20 pages, will be required by the end of the academic term after the General Examination has been passed.
Dissertation. The dissertation, which must make an original contribution to knowledge, may deal with any subject approved by the department. It must demonstrate the
student’s capacity to make critical use of source material in one or more East
Asian languages. A public presentation of dissertation research may take place during the year of completion.
As of May 1994, an overall Graduate School policy has been established that students ordinarily will not be allowed to register beyond their tenth year in the Graduate School. If after ten years a candidate has not completed all the requirements for the degree, he or she may be dropped from candidacy. A candidate who has been dropped can be reinstated only by formal readmission to the Graduate School and to the Department.
Further information regarding courses and programs of study in East Asian languages
and civilizations may be obtained by visiting the department’s Website at www.fas.harvard. edu/~ealc / or by writing to the chair, Department of East Asian Languages and Civiliza-tions, 2 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138.
PhD in History and East Asian Languages
The Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations also administers a PhD in History and East Asian Languages. This replaces the degree in History and East Asian Languages formerly administered by the Standing Committee on the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History and East Asian Languages, which ceased to admit new students in 2006. The degree is designed to accommodate the needs of students who desire a more language-intensive program of study of East Asian history.
Admission. Candidates are expected to have demonstrated special aptitude and competence for advanced work in East Asian history. Admission will be based primarily on distinction in undergraduate or graduate work, including evidence of high achievement in history or related fields, and evidence of adequate preparation in one of the East Asian languages. The GRE General test and a writing sample are required.
Residence. Minimum of two years of full-time study (16 half-courses or equivalent).
For financial residence requirements, see the GSAS Guide to Admission and Financial Aid.
Program of Study. Students working toward this degree are all required, at an early stage in their preparation, to submit a plan to their advisor showing the fields of study (normally three, but sometimes four) they propose for their general examination. The student’s program is built around these fields, which may be drawn from the lists of fields for either EALC or the Department of History. Each student must do honors work in two half-year history seminars. Students who can submit a Master’s thesis in a relevant area are required to complete one substantial research paper, normally as part of a regular seminar.
Language Requirement. Students must demonstrate mastery of one East Asian language and proficiency in at least one other. This requirement is satisfied by credit for either
- four full courses in Chinese language and three full courses in Japanese, or
- four full courses in Japanese and two-and-one-half courses in Chinese, or
- their equivalent. In special circumstances and by special permission, other East Asian languages such as Korean, Mongolian, Manchu, or Vietnamese may be substituted for Chinese or Japanese. All language requirements must be satisfied at least one month before the General Examination can be taken.
General Examination. The student must pass a two-hour oral General Examination in at least three fields, ordinarily chosen from those listed among the requirements for the PhD in History (see Higher Degrees in History). One of these fields must be in premodern history. In some cases, fulfilling these requirements may entail taking a fourth field. The examination is generally taken during the second term of the second year of study.
Dissertation. The dissertation must be in a field of East Asian history and must demonstrate the candidate’s capacity to do original research work, utilizing one or more of the East Asian languages. This dissertation must be submitted in triplicate by September 1 for the degree in November, by December 1 for the degree in March, or by April 1 for the degree in June.
Further information regarding courses and programs of study in history and East Asian languages may be obtained by writing to the Chair, Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, 2 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138 ; www.fas.harvard.edu/~ealc /
PhD in History (with Special Field of East Asian History)
This PhD degree program is administered by the Department of History. The student must apply to the Department of History and must consequently conform to the requirements of the PhD in history, as given in Higher Degrees in History.
The requirements for this degree are:
Admission. Please refer to Higher Degrees in History.
Residence. Minimum of two years of full-time study (16 half-courses or equivalent).
For financial residence requirements, see the GSAS Guide to Admission and Financial Aid.
Program of Study. The student’s program is built around four “fields of study” selected by the student from a list of fields contained in Higher Degrees in History.
Language Requirement. The student must demonstrate a reading knowledge of of two East Asian languages, or one East Asian language plus German, French or Russian by passing examinations administered by the Department of History, which are ordinarily given in September and January. See also Higher Degrees in History.
General Examination. All students must take a two-hour oral examination, covering four fields of study (see above under Program of Study), ordinarily in May of the fourth term of graduate work.
Dissertation. Please see Higher Degrees in History for rules regarding the makeup of the dissertation committee, the timing of the dissertation proposal, and submission of the dissertation.
Further information regarding courses and programs of study in history may be obtained by writing to the Director of Graduate Studies, Department of History, Robinson Hall, Cambridge, MA 02138; history@fas.harvard.edu.
Joint Degrees Between the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations and Other Departments
After a full year of graduate study, a student whose subject of study is geographically
limited primarily to East Asia but who is specializing in some branch of knowledge other than linguistics, literature, or history may, with the approval of the departments concerned, become a candidate for the PhD degree under a special ad hoc committee representing the department of the special discipline and the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations. The procedure for requesting the formation of such an ad hoc committee is outlined in The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Handbook. The requirements for a PhD degree under such a committee are separately determined in each individual case, but the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations will normally expect a candidate to meet its usual language requirements. In recent years such ad hoc degrees have been administered to students working in the fields of anthro-pology, history of art and architecture, and sociology, among others.
Financial Aid
Applications for admission and for financial aid should be made as early as possible in the fall preceding the year of desired entrance into the Graduate School and prior to January 2 of that year.
Applicants who expect to rely on financial aid from Harvard at any stage in their graduate years should file the appropriate application for financial aid at the time they apply for admission. Detailed instructions are contained in the GSAS Guide to Admission and Financial Aid.
Course assistants and teaching fellows are selected by the various departments and committees, and in most departments these posts are not normally open to first-year graduate students.
Foreign Language and Area Study Fellowships (FLAS)
The fellowships are annually assigned to Harvard University by the US Department of Education under the National Defense Education Act (Title VI) for language and area studies in East Asia at Harvard and approved Asian universities; specifically,
Inter-University centers in Beijing, Tokyo, or at the ICLP in Taipei. Applicants must be American citizens or permanent residents of the United States.
Harvard-Yenching Institute Fellowships
Harvard-Yenching Institute fellowships, primarily for Asian nationals who plan to return to Asia to teach, are awarded for graduate study at Harvard University in the humanities and social sciences, including (but not restricted to) pursuit of the degree programs outlined in this section. The Harvard-Yenching Institute and the School of Overseas Education of Peking University award fellowships for US students wishing to conduct advanced study or research in Chinese studies in China. Applications for these fellowships may be obtained from the Director, Harvard-Yenching Institute, 2 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138; www.harvard-yenching.org.
Traveling Fellowships
Social Science Research Council Fellowships for International Doctoral Research (formerly known as the Foreign Area Fellowship Program), funded by the Ford Foundation, support study in the United States and Asia. Inquiries should be addressed to the Social Science Research Council, 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10016; info@ssrc.org.
Harvard students wishing to study in Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, or Taiwan may also apply for either a US Office of -Education-administered Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship, or a Fulbright Grant for Graduate Study Abroad administered by the Institute of International Education for the US Department of State. Applications for these two awards may be obtained from the Fulbright coordinator at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in Holyoke Center.
There are also travel grants among the Harvard General Scholarships, under the Kennedy, Knox, and Sheldon Traveling Fellowships and the Graduate Society -Fellowships. In addition, the Japan Foundation provides dissertation fellowships for research in Japan.
The Harvard-Yenching Institute
The Harvard-Yenching Institute is an independent nonprofit corporation (with a Board of Trustees and an executive director) primar-ily concerned with education in Asia. However, the location at this University of the Harvard-Yenching Library (which the institute founded and still helps to support), together with the institute’s headquarters for its administration, publications, fellowships, and program of visiting scholars from East Asia, makes the institute a major factor in resources for and activities in East Asian studies at Harvard. Although it contributes to the University’s Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, the institute itself is a foundation and not a teaching organization.
The institute publishes the Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies. It also supports the publication of various books through the Harvard University Press, or in conjunction with the Council on East Asian Studies.
The Harvard-Yenching Library
The Harvard-Yenching Library is the largest university library for East Asian research in
the United States and one of the most distinguished collections in East Asian languages outside Asia itself. In addition to materials in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, it also
contains holdings in Manchu, Mongolian, Tibetan, Vietnamese, and Western languages. Thus, the library is both a subject collection on East Asia and a general collection of works in the East Asian languages.
The library, after having been known primarily for its outstanding collections on the classical and traditional literatures, histories, religions, and philosophies of China and Japan, has gone through a vigorous expansion of Korean holdings and is now also being built into a major repository on contemporary East Asia, while continuing to grow from strength in its original fields.
The library’s collection consists of over 980,000 volumes. It also boasts an outstand–ing periodical collection of more than 14,000 titles, and a newspaper collection consisting
of some 700 titles. Recent years have seen a rapid growth in the library’s microfilm and microfiche collection to its present size of approximately 80,000 reels and 18,000 fiche. Electronic resources are also being added
to its collection.
The library is open to all Harvard faculty and students and to other qualified scholars. A fee is assessed for borrowing privileges by non-Harvard users. (For the fee schedule, inquire at the circulation desk.)
The services offered by the library include the following:
- Reference
- Bibliographic assistance
- Interlibrary loans
- Copying (microfilming and xeroxing)
Biblographical records of all Chinese, Japanese, and Korean-language materials catalogued since 1989 are included in HOLLIS, as are the records for the entire Western-language collection. Chinese, Japanese, and Korean-language materials catalogued prior to 1989 are listed in separate printed book catalogues.
Registered users are permitted entry into the stacks. Study carrels are available in the library stacks. They are assigned as available upon application at the circulation desk.
The library is open during the regular academic year from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Saturday, and from noon to 5:00 p.m. on Sunday. Summer hours are from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Saturday, with the addition of noon to 5:00 p.m. on Sundays while Summer School is in session.
The library sponsors the Harvard-Yenching Library Bibliographical Series under which research aids in East Asian studies are published.
For more information consult the library’s Website at www.hcl.harvard.edu/harvard-yenching /.
Museums
The Harvard University Art Museums con-tain a distinguished representation of different branches of the archaeology and fine arts of China, Korea, and Japan, housed in the Arthur M. Sackler Museum. The collections of ancient Chinese bronzes, jades, and Buddhist sculpture, and Japanese woodblock prints are among the finest in the world. The museum also houses an extensive working library, a large slide collection, and a substantial photographic archive.
Harvard’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology has long been a leading center for research in the anthropology as well as the archaeology of Eastern Asia.
The Boston Museum of Fine Arts possesses balanced collections of Indian, Chinese, and Japanese art that are among the finest in the world. Chinese numismatics and Japanese ethnology may be advantageously studied in the Essex Institute and the Peabody Museum of Salem.
The Council on East Asian Studies
Established in 1972, the Council on East Asian Studies was formed to coordinate all teaching and research in East Asian studies at Harvard University. The council is currently administered through the Asia Center.
The John K. Fairbank Center for East Asian Research
The John K. Fairbank Center for East Asian Research grew out of two research programs started in 1955, which resulted in establishment of the East Asian Research Center in 1957 (originally called the Center for East Asian Studies). Upon the retirement of John K. Fairbank, Francis Lee Higginson Professor of History, in 1977, the Center was renamed the John K. Fairbank Center for East Asian Research in honor of its founder.
The center’s primary objective is to facilitate research and publication on China, with particular emphasis on contemporary issues. At the same time, the center’s program of activities reflects the underlying premise that China today can best be understood in the light of its historical background and in its geographical and cultural context.
Although the center does not offer instruction, it provides assistance to postdoctoral researchers who are preparing manuscripts for publication, and to graduate and undergraduate students traveling to Asia. In addition, the center invites senior researchers from American and foreign institutions to come as visiting scholars, research associates or fellows to work on selected projects.
For more information consult our website at www.fas.harvard.edu/~fairbank.
The Edwin O. Reischauer
Institute of Japanese Studies
First established in 1973 as the Japan -Institute, the Reischauer Institute has a University-wide mandate to develop and coordinate activities concerning Japan among the various faculties at Harvard, through the advancement of instruction and research in the social sciences and humanities. Moreover, the Institute seeks to expand and coordinate Japan-related connections with other Harvard departments, -centers, and research institutes, and to respond to scholarly and public interest in Japan from outside Harvard through outreach activities such as lectures, conferences, symposia, exhibitions, and films.
The institute contributes to
- support for new teaching positions in the field of Japanese studies;
- support for research, publications, library, and administrative costs related to institute programs;
- undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral fellowships and grants;
- other activities designed to stimulate interest in the study of Japan.
The Korea Institute
The Korea Institute is Harvard’s only organization devoted solely to the development and support of Korean studies at the university. Established in 1981 under the aegis of the Fairbank Center, the Institute became an independent organization within the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) in 1993. The Korea Institute’s purposes are to give heightened visibility and direction to Korean Studies activities throughout Harvard, and to serve as a focal point of involvement for scholars and others outside the Harvard community to conduct research with Harvard faculty, students, and resources.
The Institute’s programs include seminars, workshops, conferences, exhibits, films and cultural events. The Institute also coordinates a growing array of undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral fellowships, representing fields in the humanities and social sciences. The Institute supports publications in the Korean studies field, including a series on Korean literature, studies and translations, sponsored by the Sunshik Min Endowment for the Advancement of Korean Literature.
More information on the Korea Institute is available at: www.fas.harvard.edu/~korea, including a link for prospective students.
The Harvard University
Asia Center
The Harvard University Asia Center was established in 1997 to facilitate teaching and research in East Asian Studies throughout Harvard University. In addition, the Center will prepare for expanded programs in Southeast and South Asia. Some of the goals of the Asia Center are
- to promote research, teaching and other programs that study Asia in comparative terms (particularly projects involving more than one Asian coun-try);
- to support cooperative projects involving participants from more than one Faculty of the University; and
- to develop and support programs which link scholarship
on modern Asia to contemporary issues on government, business, law, society, culture, and other fields.
The Center currently administers Harvard’s National Resource Center for East Asia and publishes the Harvard East Asian Monograph Series, the Harvard-Hallym Series, and the Harvard-Yenching Institute Monograph Series. The Center also supports faculty, graduate, and undergraduate research through its grants and fellowships programs.
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