Ph.D. Plans

Doctorate in East Asian Languages & Cultural Studies

The Ph.D. 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 and social sciences. At this historical juncture, we are especially interested in building bridges between national, regional and transnational studies. We also seek to explore issues of national identity within and beyond East Asia, to examine the gendering of East Asian societies, and to engage and challenge conventional Western humanistic and social scientific theories of modernity and globalization.

Graduate Program Specializations. Beyond the 3 core graduate seminars, the program is structured around 5 subject specializations. While they will not appear on a student’s transcript, they are indicative both of the Department’s areas of faculty expertise and of student selection of such areas for concentration during their graduate careers.  Over time, as faculty personnel change, the precise number and identity of these specializations will be subject to change.  The current (2013) specializations are:


Graduate Applicants Please Note:
The final deadline for receipt of ALL applications
and supplementary materials is December 10
.
There is no longer an April deadline.


Fellowships and Financial Aid
Ph.D. applicants who would like to be nominated for a UCSB-based fellowship must submit all application materials by the application deadline. 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.

Interested in Environmental Studies?
The department is affiliated with the Interdepartmental Ph.D. Emphasis in Environment and Society (IEES), a new Ph.D. emphasis, launched in 2014, with the goal of providing UCSB doctoral students an opportunity to receive training and mentorship in interdisciplinary environmental studies and sciences beyond the scope of their normal degree programs. Students that join the emphasis and complete all of the requirements will receive a certificate analogous to an undergraduate minor. IEES is administered by an advisory board of faculty from across campus and is based in the Environmental Studies Program.