GEAS offers a structured 3-year doctoral program for 4-year PhD processes with a regional focus on East Asia (China, Japan, Korea). Doctoral dissertations at GEAS are expected to analyze modern or contemporary East Asia in the fields of politics, society, economy, culture, law or history.

Application Requirements

Successful applicants will have an above-average master’s degree in either area studies (Chinese Studies, Japanese Studies, Korean Studies) or a discipline represented at the Graduate School with a focus on East Asia. While applicants are not expected to contact potential supervisors before their application, they are highly encouraged to review the profiles of GEAS* faculty to ensure the compatibility of their project with GEAS professors’ research profiles.

Eligible Disciplines

Our disciplines include all areas in which our Principal Investigators and Dissertation Advisors specialize:

Japanese Studies, Chinese Studies, Korean Studies

and/or

Political Science, International Law, Public Law, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Business and Economics, History, Gender Studies, Performance Studies.

Please note: Dissertation topics in Linguistics, Literary Studies, Education, Film, Media and/or Communication Studies cannot be supervised.

The language of communication is English. Successful candidates will also have language skills in an East Asian Language (Chinese, Japanese, or Korean) at a level of B2 or higher.

Funding

The graduate school does not offer long-term institutional funding. Applicants are required to apply for institutional funding at the same time as they apply for the doctoral program.

Up to two candidates with Chinese citizenship can be nominated for funding through the cooperation of Freie Universität and the Chinese Scholarship Council through the FUB-CSC PhD scholarship program.

Additionally, three outstanding candidates can be nominated for a 6-month Starting Grant from the graduate school.

Application Period

The next application period starts 15 September 2025 and ends 15 November 2025.

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