East Asian Studies

Overview

Besides PhD and MPhil programmes in Chinese Studies and in Japanese Studies for those who specifically focus on one or other of these cultural areas, East Asian Studies offers scope for MPhil and PhD topics concerning the East Asian region, broadly defined (including South-East Asia, especially when related to areas and cultures which use Chinese writing characters), while transcending specific cultural boundaries or seeking to utilize the academic specialism and guidance of scholars in East Asian Studies to engage with academic topics within the region.

In such contexts East Asian Studies staff can offer postgraduate supervision in a variety of areas related to religion, education, popular culture, art, history, gender studies, identity formation, literature, social dynamics, social and business networks, as well as medical history and policy, either in terms of specific East Asian cultures or relating to topics defined as crossing national and cultural boundaries within the wider East Asian context.

Career opportunities

Many of PhD graduates in Modern Languages and Translation and Interpreting Studies have gone on to academic positions at leading universities in the UK, Europe, USA, East Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. The University of Manchester graduates have been also successful with receiving prestigious postdoctoral fellowships, including the Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship and the British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship.