East
Asian Studies
East
Asian Studies
Penn State
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Penn State offers undergraduate courses that deal with China, Japan and/or Korea in a variety of disciplines. Students with an interest in this part of the world, especially China or Japan, should consider a major in East Asian Studies or perhaps a minor in Asian Area Studies. Students with an interest in East Asian languages can take a major or minor in Japanese, a minor in Chinese, or basic courses in Korean.
There is no graduate program in East Asian Studies at this time, but concrete plans are now underway to implement a graduate program. Several departments offer graduate courses that deal with East Asia in whole or in part. Graduate students may also be able to arrange one more more fields of concentration that deal with East Asia, depending on the details of their program.
Beginning in 2009-10, the programs in East Asian Studies, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean will be reorganized under the aegis of a new program in Asian Studies. This initiative will significantly expand curricular offerings in the field, most immediately by establishing a Chinese major to go along with the existing minor in Chinese. The program will also offer a new minor in Asian American Studies. In the next few years Penn State also hopes to offer a minor in Korean and a more extensive program in Hindi, all of which are part of a much more general commitment on the part of the College of Liberal Arts to invest in faculty scholarship and innovative teaching in Asian Studies fields. For more information on the Asian Studies initiative, please contact Eric Hayot.
The new program in Asian Studies will also offer dual-degree PhDs in Comparative Literature and History, and may also offer dual-degree PhDs in Applied Linguistics, Political Science, and Sociology. Dual-degree candidates should apply to their home departments (e.g. Comp Lit or History) but indicate as part of their application that they wish to be considered for the dual-degree PhD in Asian Studies. The dual-degree programs will accept applications beginning in Fall 2009 for enrollment in Fall 2010.