The Department offers a Ph.D. program in East Asian Studies, with specializations in Chinese, Japanese, and East Asian Cultural Studies. The M.A. may be awarded to Ph.D. students in progress toward the doctoral degree.
The graduate program emphasizes rigorous training in language and textual analysis, with equal attention given to the historical, social, and cultural dimensions of literary study. In addition to more traditional vocabularies of criticism and theory, the curriculum encourages exploration of recent challenges to established conceptual and methodological frameworks. The program builds on the foundation of a faculty whose research interests engage major issues in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean literature and culture, while developing connections with the larger community of scholarship at UCI.
Because the graduate program is designed to prepare students for both college-level teaching and advanced research, each student will be required to serve, under direct faculty supervision, as a teaching assistant in an appropriate undergraduate course offered through the Department.
Assuming that a student is enrolled full-time and enters the program with no major deficiencies in background or training, the normative time needed to complete the Ph.D. is seven years from matriculation. The maximum time permitted is eight years. For students admitted with an M.A. or its equivalent from another institution, certain course requirements may be waived upon the approval of a faculty advisory committee, with a consequent reduction in normative time for completion of the Ph.D.
The following graduate emphases are available: Asian American (see the Humanities Special Programs section); Critical Theory (see the Emphasis in Critical Theory section); Feminist Studies (see the Gender and Sexuality Studies section); Latin American Studies (see the Humanities Special Programs section); Medical Humanities (see the Humanities Special Programs section); and Visual Studies (see the Visual Studies section).
Master of Arts in East Asian Studies
Students are not admitted to an M.A.-only program but may be granted an M.A. in recognition of progress toward the Ph.D., normally after six quarters of course work and submission of two approved seminar papers, which will serve as the M.A. examination.