As one of the largest and most interdisciplinary East Asian area studies departments in the country, the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures in the Hamilton Lugar School (HLS) offers a wealth of options for students wishing to study East Asia at the graduate level.
Choose your path
Ready to apply?
Our intrepid faculty conduct research and offer classes on a wide array of topics, including linguistics, language pedagogy, history, business, literature, pop culture, politics, society, and international affairs. Interested in one, or all, of these areas? One of our seven MA or PhD programs will be a perfect fit for you to pursue your intellectual passions!
Our graduate degrees—the MA in East Asian Studies, the MA in Japanese or Chinese Language Pedagogy, MA in East Asian Studies-Korean Language Pedagogy Track, and the MA and PhD in Chinese or Japanese —all entail study of an East Asian language (Chinese, Japanese, or Korean) but are broadly conceived and flexible so as to accommodate coursework on a diverse array of topical interests.
Also interested in business or public affairs? Consider combining our department’s MA in East Asian Studies with a dual degree from one of IU’s internationally-renowned professional schools — a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) with the Kelley School of Business or a Master’s in Public Affairs (MPA) with the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs.
Scroll down or browse our site to figure out which of our graduate degrees is the best fit for you and your interests!
A vibrant intellectual community
Our large faculty but relatively small graduate programs ensure direct engagement and mentorship throughout the course of your study. Our faculty is truly interdisciplinary and includes roughly 30 scholars combining deep area knowledge with disciplinary expertise in art history, anthropology, economics, film, gender studies, history, linguistics, literature, media studies, political science, religious studies, and sociology.
While pursuing your graduate degree you will be immersed in a school that teaches more foreign languages than any other in North America, and which offers a stimulating intellectual life beyond the classroom through regular events and conferences open to students (including East Asia-focused programming offered by the 21st Century Japan Politics & Society Initiative, Asian Cultural Center, Chinese Language Flagship, the East Asia Studies Center, the Institute of Korean Studies, and many others).
Financial support
The Hamilton Lugar School has significant resources available to help many students pursue their graduate studies, including PhD fellowship packages, departmental AI (associate instructor) opportunities, Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) fellowships, and the Gines Graduate EALC Fellowship, among others. Please check out Funding Opportunities for more information.
Areas of study
Our flexible degree requirements allow students considerable freedom to design their own course of study. A few general concentrations of faculty expertise you may wish to consider include the following:
Few areas of the world have experienced political, economic, and social change faster than 21st century East Asia. The rapid globalization of this dynamic region—and it's vast political, social, security, and economic ties to the United States—make it one of the world's most important. EALC boasts one of the largest and most diverse faculty in the United States with expertise on contemporary East Asia, and offers courses on topics ranging from politics, economics, and foreign policy to social movements, gender, and law & society. This concentration will have particular appeal to those interested in pursuing careers in government, international business, law, journalism, civil society, and foreign policy.
Suggested MA/PhD degrees for this concentration:
- MA in East Asian Studies (EAS)
- This degree can be pursued as a stand-alone, terminal degree, or as part of a dual degree with internationally-renowned professional schools on campus:
- MA in East Asian Studies + MBA (Master of Business Administration) from the Kelley School of Business
- MA in East Asian Studies + MPA (Master of Public Affairs) from the O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs (formerly SPEA)
- MA in East Asian Studies-Korean Language Pedagogy Track
- This degree can be pursued as a stand-alone, terminal degree, or as part of a dual degree with internationally-renowned professional schools on campus:
- MA in Chinese or Japanese
- Ph.D. Minor in East Asian Studies
Core and affiliated faculty:
- Hannah Airriess (Japanese film & media)
- Heather Blair (Japanese religion)
- Gardner Bovingdon (China; Xinjiang; nationalism and ethnic conflict)
- Russell Burge (Korean history and society; urban history; development in East Asia)
- John Finch (Korea; family; education; gender; culture and cinema)
- Sara Friedman (China; society; marriage and family; gender and sexuality; migration)
- Rick Harbaugh (China; business and economics)
- Hilary Holbrow (Japanese politics and society)
- Seung-kyung Kim (Korea; gender and society)
- Wendy Leutert (Chinese political economy)
- Adam P. Liff (international relations of East Asia; Japan; China; U.S. strategy)
- Angela Y. McClean (Korea; Contemporary Korean society; International migration; refugees and asylum-seekers; lay and society; political society; transnational and global sociology)
- Ethan Michelson (Chinese law and society)
- Marvin Sterling (Japan; African diaspora; race, social identity)
- Jason Wu (Chinese politics; ideology and public opinion)
Other relevant IUB units/programs (alphabetical order):
- 21st Century Japan Politics and Society Initiative
- Asian Cultural Center
- East Asia and the World Speaker Series
- East Asian Studies Center
- Institute of Korean Studies
Keywords:
- politics, society, international relations, law, gender, religion, race, security, economics, business, demographics, trade, international institutions, diplomacy foreign policy, mainland China, Japan, South Korea, North Korea, United States, Taiwan
The Humanities faculty in EALC operate at the junction between globalism’s optimistic hope for a universal culture on one side, and the reality of multiple overlapping centers of knowledge and culture production (Area Studies) on the other. Emphasizing the integral relationship between communication proficiency, historical knowledge, and cultural literacy, the diverse group of students and faculty within the EALC Humanities learn and develop multiple languages of interpretation necessary to navigate and successfully communicate in a complex world. At EALC you get to pursue in-depth studies of your chosen area guided by leading scholars covering an amazing range of East Asian cultures. The combination of depth and range that our graduate program offers is hard to find elsewhere. This concentration will have particular appeal to those interested in pursuing careers in education, journalism, tourism, communication, cultural industries.
Departmental MA/PhD degrees:
- MA in East Asian Studies (EAS)
- MA in Chinese or Japanese
- PhD in Chinese
- PhD in Japanese
- PhD Minor in East Asian Studies
Core and affiliated faculty:
- Hannah Airriess (Japanese film & media)
- Vanessa Baker (Korean; literature; environmental humanities; feminist theory; transnational proletarian literature; ecosocialism; indigeneity; environmental history; new materialsisms; labor history; sound studies)
- Heather Blair (Japanese religion; pre-modern Buddhism)
- Russell Burge (Korean history and society; urban history; development in East Asia)
- Michael Ing (early and early medieval China; Chinese religion; Confucianism)
- Manling Luo (pre-modern Chinese literature)
- Scott O'Bryan (Japanese history; 20th century)
- Morten Oxenboell (Japanese history [medieval]; violence and conflict; social history)
- Jonathan Schlesinger (Chinese history; Qing period)
- Aaron Stalnaker (early Chinese religion and philosophy; comparative ethics)
- Tie Xiao (Chinese literature and intellectual history)
- Nick Vogt (Chinese history [ancient] and archaeology; inscriptions and manuscripts)
- Fei Hsien Wang (Chinese history; Republican period)
Other relevant IUB units/programs (alphabetical order):
- Asian Cultural Center
- East Asian Studies Center
- Institute of Korean Studies
- MA in Chinese Studies
- MA in Japanese Studies
Keywords:
- Literature, film, history, medieval, classical, pop culture, music, globalization, religion, archaeology, material culture, paleography
To specialize in language studies in EALC at the MA level, students can choose to focus on either language pedagogy or linguistics. EALC offers MA degrees in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean language pedagogy (MA in Chinese Language Pedagogy, MA in Japanese Language Pedagogy, MA in East Asian Studies-Korean Language Pedagogy Track), through which the students will learn to teach Chinese, Japanese, or Korean at the college level. The students receive pedagogical training through taking courses, being an instructor, and doing a pedagogy project. EALC also offers an MA in Chinese and an MA in Japanese, which allows students who are interested in learning about Chinese linguistics and Japanese linguistics to take courses and explore research ideas.
At the PhD level, we offer degrees in Chinese and in Japanese (PhD in Chinese & PhD in Japanese). We especially welcome applicants who have background in Chinese or Japanese studies and are passionate about conducting linguistic research to advance knowledge about human language. Faculty members in our department specialize in experimental linguistics (focusing in particular on lab and corpus based research in psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics, and language acquisition) and language pedagogy of Chinese and Japanese.
Faculty (Language Pedagogy):
- Yea-Fen Chen (Chinese)
- Hyo Sang Lee (Korean)
- Yuan Lu (Chinese)
- Jae DiBello Takeuchi (Japanese)
Faculty (East Asian Linguistics):
- Chien-Jer Charles Lin (Chinese linguistics)
- Hyo Sang Lee (Korean linguistics)
- Jae DiBello Takeuchi (Japanese)
Resources for graduate students
Have questions about grad student life at IU and in Bloomington? These resources can help: