The new degree is designed to prepare students for academic and other professional careers that increasingly demand research and expertise across traditional disciplinary boundaries within the humanities, as well as between the humanities and social sciences. We are especially interested in building bridges at this historical juncture between national, regional and transnational studies. We also seek to explore issues of national identity within and beyond East Asia, to examine the pre-modern and contemporary gendering of East Asian societies, and to engage and challenge conventional Western humanistic and social scientific theories of modernity and globalization.
The new program is open to students focusing on Chinese or Japanese. The curriculum is structured around a number of subject specializations that are transdisciplinary and, depending on student interest, may be transnational as well. The specializations include modern East Asian cultural studies, cinema and the performing arts, religion and geography, Buddhist studies, early modern Japanese cultural studies, literati culture, Taiwan studies, Chinese language pedagogy and linguistics, and translation studies. Seminars in these specialization supplement required core courses in methodological and theoretical issues in the study of East Asia. Language instruction through advanced levels is offered in Chinese and Japanese, including the pre-modern languages, as well as instruction in Korean and Tibetan.
The program has extensive links through cross-listed courses and faculty affiliations with other departments and programs at UC Santa Barbara, including History, Film, Art History, Comparative Literature, Dramatic Art, and Religious Studies. Students are encouraged to take courses outside the Department and to create their own interdepartmental specializations. Department and affiliated faculty include Michael Berry, Jose Cabezon, Ronald Egan, Sabine Frühstück, Michael Emmerich, Suk-Young Kim, Ann-Elise Lewallen, Xiaorong Li, John Nathan, Hyung Il Pai, William Powell, Katherine Saltzman-Li, Kuo-ch’ing Tu, Mayfair Yang, Hsiao-jung Sharon Yu, Laurie Freeman, Tsuyoshi Hasegawa, Suk-young Kim, Yunte Huang, Luke Roberts, Peter Sturman, and Miriam Wattles.
Fellowships and Financial Aid
Ph.D. applicants who would like to be nominated for a UCSB-based fellowship must submit all application materials by December 15. M.A. and Ph.D. applicants who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents and wish to apply for federal financial aid, please go to UCSB financial aid.
Financial aid is available through U.S. Dept. of Education Title VI funding (FLAS), UC Santa Barbara campus-wide doctoral fellowships, and other departmental sources. Teaching assistantships and readerships may also be available.
Please direct inquiries about the Ph.D. program to Professor Ronald Egan via email. back to top |
