Graduate Program in Japanese

The MA in Asian Languages and Civilizations may be pursued with a specialization in Chinese or Japanese. Graduate students work in a broad interdisciplinary context, requiring a study of literary, historical, and cultural texts across the millennia of Chinese and Japanese written materials. The MA requires 30 hours of approved graduate coursework or 24 hours of coursework plus a thesis.

MA Program

The MA program in Japanese is designed to provide advanced-level training in Japanese language, literature and civilization, with the aim of preparing students for both Japan-related professional careers and doctoral study in Japanese literature and culture. The program boasts four professors with specializations in the literature and performing arts of classical, medieval, early-modern and modern Japan. In recent years our MA students have gone on to PhD programs in Japanese literature, art history and religious studies at this and numerous other first-rank institutions in the U.S. and abroad. See Japanese alumni stories.

PhD Program

The PhD programs in Japanese offer extensive training in the modern and pre-modern literatures of Japan for students seeking to pursue research and teaching careers at the collegiate level. The program offers specializations in Japanese with concentrations in literary and/or cultural studies of either the pre-modern or modern periods. The PhD requires a minimum of 45 credit hours in graduate courses numbered 5000 or above in Japanese, and 30 credit hours of dissertation work beyond the required coursework. PhD students may transfer to the department up to 21 hours of acceptable graduate-level credit. Academic preparation is expected in both classical and modern language.