East Asian Studies (BA)

Department Website

Program Description

The Department of East Asian Studies offers students a comprehensive undergraduate program focusing on China, Japan, and Korea. The program combines the teaching of languages with the disciplinary study of diverse forms of cultural production and social practices. The curriculum emphasizes multi- and cross-disciplinary approaches to the study of documents, practices, and texts, and their regional and global interconnections. The department offers four-year language sequences in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean designed to facilitate the rapid acquisition of literacy in the target language. Students are encouraged to integrate their acquired language skills with the in-depth study of particular aspects of East Asian civilization through upper-level seminars, independent study, and, for qualified undergraduates, an honors research program. Students graduating from the Department of East Asian Studies go on to pursue a wide variety of professional careers related to the region, or continue their education at the graduate level in related fields.

Honors Program

Eligibility

Students must spend at least two full years in residence at the College of Arts and Science, completing at least 64 credits of graded work in the College. Students must maintain a general GPA of 3.65 and a major average of 3.7. Students transferring from Liberal Studies are exempt from the CAS residency requirement.

Requirements

  1. Substantial completion of the major requirements (24 to 28 credits)
  2. Major GPA of 3.7 or better
  3. The student must register in his or her senior year for two semesters of independent study, at 4 credits per semester (a total of 8 credits), under the supervision of a departmental faculty member (or affiliate).

This total of 8 credits is in addition to the 36 credits of the major. The 8-credit honors sequence must result in a substantively researched thesis, normally 30 to 50 typed pages. The faculty supervisor and the subject of the honors thesis are chosen by the student in consultation with the director of undergraduate studies, who must approve the topic/adviser in the first semester of the honors sequence.