Looking at East Asia
The Graduate School for East Asian Studies, by integrating area studies with the relevant disciplines, especially social sciences, aims to advance the development of East Asian Studies and increase knowledge about this region of the world.
Image Credit: Verena Blechinger-Talcott
East Asia is currently undergoing far-reaching political, social, economic, and cultural change, without precedent in the history of the region. Freie Universität Berlin contributes to investigating these changes through its newly established Graduate School for East Asian Studies.
News from Nov 25, 2014
The graduate school, by integrating area studies with the relevant disciplines, especially social sciences, aims to advance the development of East Asian studies programs in Germany and other parts of Europe and to contribute to the body of knowledge available about this important world region.
The first graduate students in the program started their studies in October 2013, at the beginning of the winter semester. The graduate school aims to provide an excellent education in the East Asia-related subjects (Japanese Studies, Korean Studies, Chinese Studies) associated with the mediation of broad regional expertise as well as a good foundation in methodologies in relevant disciplines like history and political sciences, law, economics, social anthropology, and cultural studies.
An important part of the program is an intensive training period in East Asia. The new graduate school will rely on existing networks between Freie Universität and the major universities and research institutions in East Asia and the most prestigious related institutions in Europe and the U.S.A.
The doctoral students in this graduate school can benefit from the university’s diverse collaborations with local, regional, and international partners in research, business, politics, and culture. They are offered an international, broadly based methodically demanding education and intensive supervision of their individual dissertation projects. The graduate school contributes to the academic dialogue between German, European, American, and Asian doctoral students and researchers as well as to exchange between area studies and the separate disciplines.
The director of the graduate school is the Japanese studies professor, Verena Blechinger-Talcott. The vice directors are Eun-Jeung Lee, a professor of Korean studies, and Klaus Mühlhahn, a professor of Chinese studies.
Freie Universität is home to seven graduate schools funded through the German Excellence Initiative:
- Berlin-Brandenburg School for Regenerative Therapies (BSRT)
- Berlin Graduate School Muslim Cultures and Societies
- Berlin Mathematical School
- Berlin School of Integrative Oncology
- Friedrich Schlegel Graduate School of Literary Studies
- Graduate School of East Asian Studies
- Graduate School of North American Studies