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OVERVIEW

The Department offers a program of graduate study leading to the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree in East Asian Languages and Literatures, with concentrations in Chinese, Japanese and East Asian Cultural Studies. The Master of Arts (M.A.) degree may be awarded to Ph.D. students in progress toward their 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. As noted below, one quarter's worth of this teaching may be counted as part of the required coursework toward completion of the degree.

Assuming that a student is enrolled full-time and enters the program with no major deficiencies in background or training, normal time needed to complete the Ph.D. degree will be seven years from matriculation. For students admitted with an M.A. degree or its equivalent from another institution, faculty advisors may waive certain course requirements, with a consequent reduction in normative time for completion of the Ph.D. degree.

The following graduate emphases are available to all graduate students: Asian American Studies, Comparative Literature, Critical Theory, Feminist Studies, Translation Studies and Visual Studies.