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Bulletin Archive

This archived information is dated to the 2009-10 academic year only and may no longer be current.

For currently applicable policies and information, see the current Stanford Bulletin.

Master of Arts in East Asian Studies

University requirements for the master's degree are described in the "Graduate Degrees" section of this bulletin.

The master's degree program allows a great deal of flexibility in combining language training, interdisciplinary area studies, and a disciplinary concentration. The director of the center assigns preliminary faculty advisers to all students. Members of the staff and faculty are available for academic and career planning. The M.A. program is normally completed in two academic years, but students can shorten this time by receiving credit for prior language work or by attending summer sessions. Students are urged to complete the degree requirements within one year if their background makes it possible.

Applicants must submit scores for the General Test of the Graduate Record Examination. Foreign applicants are also required to take the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). Applications for admission and financial aid should be made online; see http://gradadmissions.stanford.edu.

The requirements for the M.A. in East Asian Studies are as follows:

Language Requirement—Students must complete the equivalent of Stanford's first three years of language training in Chinese, Japanese, or Korean. Students entering the program without any language preparation should complete first- and second-year Chinese, Japanese, or Korean within the first year of residence at Stanford. This necessitates completing a summer language program. Language courses taken at Stanford must be for letter grades.

The language requirement may be satisfied in part or in full by placing into an appropriate Stanford language class through the language proficiency exam given by the Language Center. Students who fulfill this minimum three-year language requirement before completing other requirements are encouraged to continue language study, or take courses in which Chinese or Japanese are used, for as long as they are in the program. Language courses above the third-year level may be applied to the Area Studies requirement discussed below. Please note that the language used to meet the three year language proficiency requirement should match the student's country of focus. Students in the M.A. program are also eligible to apply for the Inter-University language programs in Beijing and Yokohama. Work completed in one of these programs may be counted toward the M.A. degree's language requirement.

Area Studies Requirement—Students must complete the 1-unit core course, EASTASN 330, and at least nine additional courses related to East Asia numbered 100 or above for a minimum total of 45 units. These nine courses must be 3 or more units, and taken for a letter grade. At least 23 units must be designated primarily for graduate students, typically at the 200-300 levels. As training in research methodologies and demonstrated research ability in a specific discipline are integral parts of the program, three of the nine courses must be taken within a single department, and at least one of these must be a seminar, colloquium, or advanced course which requires a research paper on East Asia. The six additional area studies courses may be taken in departments of the student's choosing. Some theory-oriented or methodological courses may be used to meet part of these requirements provided they are demonstrably useful for understanding East Asian problems. Language courses numbered 100-199 do not count toward the courses required for the degree. Credit toward the area studies requirement is not given for courses taken before entering the M.A. program, however students may take courses for exchange credit at the University of California, Berkeley, with the approval of their adviser and the Office of the University Registrar.

M.A. Thesis Requirement—A master's thesis, representing a substantial piece of original research, should be filed with the Center's program office as part of the graduation requirements. With the adviser's approval, the master's thesis requirement may be satisfied by expanding a research paper written for an advanced course.

In addition to EASTASN courses, the following courses offered this year in other departments may be used to fulfill the area studies requirements. To meet requirements for the master's degree, students must take courses at the 100 level or above, and at least 23 units at the 200 level or above. In general, M.A. students should register for classes with the higher course number (for example, graduate students should register for ANTHRO 282 and undergraduates should register for ANTHRO 82). Not all courses offered by other departments that have East Asia content may be listed here. If there is a course not listed here that has East Asia content, please check with the Center for East Asian Studies to verify whether or not it can be used to fulfill the degree requirements.

ANTHRO 82/282. Medical Anthropology

ANTHRO 147A. Folklore, Mythology, and Islam in Central Asia

ANTHRO 148/248. Health, Politics, and Culture of Modern China

ANTHRO 148A/248A. Nomads of Eurasia: Culture in Transition

ANTHRO 151/251. Women, Fertility, and Work

ANTHRO 152A. Urban Poverty and Inequality in Contemporary China

ARTHIST 182/382. Arts of China, 900-1500: Cultures in Competition

ARTHIST 282A. Imagining the Imperial: Images of the Court in Late Ming Dynasty Public Culture

ARTHIST 287A. The Japanese Tea Ceremony: The History, Aesthetics, and Politics Behind a National Pastime (Same as JAPANGEN 287A)

ARTHIST 386. Theme and Style in Japanese Art (Same as JAPANGEN 186/286)

ARTHIST 483. Shanghai Visual Culture: Contested Modernities

CHINGEN 51. Chinese Calligraphy

CHINGEN 91. Traditional East Asian Culture: China

CHINGEN 119/219. Popular Culture and Casino Capitalism in China

CHINGEN 131/231. Chinese Poetry in Translation

CHINGEN 133/233. Literature in 20th-Century China

CHINGEN 137/237. Tiananmen Square: History, Literature, Iconography

CHINLIT 125/205. Beginning Classical Chinese, First Quarter

CHINLIT 126/206. Beginning Classical Chinese, Second Quarter

CHINLIT 127/207. Beginning Classical Chinese, Third Quarter

CHINLIT 201. Proseminar: Bibliographic and Research Methods in Chinese Studies

CHINLIT 221. Advanced Classical Chinese: Philosophical Texts

CHINLIT 222. Advanced Classical Chinese: Historical Narration

CHINLIT 265. Major Figures in Classical Chinese Shi Poetry

CHINLIT 289. The Poetics and Politics of Affect in Modern China

CHINLIT 371. Seminar in Chinese Literary Criticism (Same as COMPLIT 371)

CLASSHIS 365. The First Great Divergence: Late Antique and Early Medieval Europe and China

ECON 106. World Food Economy

ECON 113. Economics of Innovation

ECON 165. International Finance

ECON 166. International Trade

ECON 168/268. Topics in International Finance

ECON 225. Economics of Technology and Innovation

EDUC 109X. Educational Issues in Contemporary China

EDUC 306B. Politics, Policy Making, and Schooling Around the World

EE 402A. Topics in International Technology Management

EE 402S. Topics in International Advanced Technology Research

EE 402T. Entrepreneurship in Asian High Tech Industries

FILMSTUD 100C/300C. History of World Cinema III, 1960-Present

HISTORY 62N. The Atomic Bomb in Policy and History

HISTORY 103E. History of Nuclear Weapons (Same as POLISCI 116)

HISTORY 106A. Global Human Geography: Asia and Africa (Same as INTNLREL 161A)

HISTORY 191D. China: The Northern and Southern Dynasties

HISTORY 193. Late Imperial China

HISTORY 194B. Japan in the Age of the Samurai

HISTORY 195. Modern Korean History

HISTORY 195C. Modern Japanese History

HISTORY 198. The History of Modern China

HISTORY 256/356. U.S.-China Relations: From the Opium War to Tiananmen

HISTORY 291D/391D. Colonialism and Collaboration in East Asia

HISTORY 292/392. The Korean War: The Origins, Outbreak, and Aftermath

HISTORY 292D/392D. Japan in Asia, Asia in Japan

HISTORY 292F/392F. Traditional Korea: History and Culture

HISTORY 295F/395F. Race and Ethnicity in East Asia

HISTORY 295J. Chinese Women's History

HISTORY 296E/396E. Contentious Identities: The Formation of Race, Ethnicity, and Nationhood in Modern Japan

HISTORY 299X/399A. Design and Methodology for International Field Research

HISTORY 395J. Gender and Sexuality in Chinese History

HISTORY 396D. Modern Japan

HISTORY 492. Society in Ancient and Medieval China

HISTORY 496A,B. Graduate Research Seminar in Modern Chinese History

HISTORY 498C,D. Japanese Colonial Archives I,II

HUMBIO 147. Population and Society in Europe and China

HUMBIO 147C. Chinese Culture and Society

IPS 244. U.S. Policy toward Northeast Asia

JAPANGEN 51/251. Japanese Business Culture

JAPANGEN 60. Asian Art and Culture

JAPANGEN 92. Traditional East Asian Culture: Japan

JAPANGEN 121/221. Translating Japan, Translating the West

JAPANGEN 138/238. Survey of Modern Japanese Literature in Translation

JAPANGEN 149/249. Screening Japan: Issues in Crosscultural Interpretation

JAPANGEN 187/287. Romance, Desire, and Sexuality in Modern Japanese Literature

JAPANLIT 170/270. The Tale of Genji and Its Historical Reception

JAPANLIT 201. Proseminar: Introduction to Graduate Study in Japanese

JAPANLIT 210. Orientalism, Occidentalism, Crossculturalism: Japan, China, and the West, Theory and Visual Culture

JAPANLIT 260. Japanese Poetry and Poetics

JAPANLIT 281. Japanese Pragmatics

JAPANLIT 296. Readings in Modern Japanese Literature

JAPANLIT 350. Japanese Historical Fiction

JAPANLIT 377. Seminar: Structure of Japanese

JAPANLIT 395. Early Modern Japanese Literature

JAPANLIT 396. Modern Japanese Literature

LAW 245. Chinese Law and Business

LAW 466. Trade and Investment in China

MUSIC 13Q. Classical Music and Politics: Western Music in Modern China

POLISCI 112K. Korea and East Asian International Relations

POLISCI 140L. China in World Politics

POLISCI 443S. Political Economy of Reform in China

RELIGST 14. Exploring Buddhism

RELIGST 18. Zen Buddhism

RELIGST 113B. Japanese Religion Through Film

RELIGST 151A. Buddhist Art in a Cosmopolitan Environment

RELIGST 212. Chuang Tzu

RELIGST 247/347. Chinese Buddhist Texts

RELIGST 248A/348A. Chinese Buddhism Beyond the Great Wall

RELIGST 258/358. Japanese Buddhist Texts

RELIGST 370. Comparative Religious Ethics

SOC 117A/217A. China Under Mao

SOC 316. Historical and Comparative Sociology

STRAMGT 382. Culture and Management in Asia-Pacific

STRAMGT 385. International Business

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