Asian Studies

Faculty

Robert Ho Professor Robinson
Associate Professors Yamamoto (Director)

Advisory Committee Albertson, Brankley Abbas, Crespi, Erley, Godfrey, Graybill, Hirata, Hodges, Hsu, Kaimal, Kato, Khan, Khanna, Mehl, Murshid, Nam, Palmer, Rajasingham, Robinson, Rotter, Rutherford, Song, Sullivan, Wang, Xu, Yamamoto (Director)

Asia holds a unique and vital place within the globalizing world of the early 21st century. Home to an extraordinary range of linguistic and ethnic groups, this broad and dynamic region is rich in cultural and environmental diversity. Engaging the many changes taking place in Asian societies today requires a similarly diverse set of intellectual skills. To this end, the Asian Studies Program at Colgate integrates scholarly approaches spanning the arts and humanities and social sciences: from literature, art, and religion to history, politics, economics, and geography. The Asian studies major encourages students to undertake their own interdisciplinary explorations of this region.

Awards

The Award for Excellence in Area Studies (South Asia, China, Japan, Pan-Asia) — awarded by the program to students on the basis of outstanding academic performance in coursework taken within the major.

Study Groups

The Asian Studies Program strongly encourages majors to participate in Colgate study groups and in approved programs in India or other locations in Asia. Faculty of the program serve as directors of study-abroad programs in China, Japan, and Korea. For more information, see Off-Campus Study .

China Study Group

Spends approximately four months in Shanghai, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, in intensive language training and firsthand observation of recent cultural, political, and economic changes.

Japan Study Group

Based in Kyoto, provides lodging with Japanese families; intensive language training; and instruction in Japanese politics, economics, business, religion, art, linguistics, and literature.

Korea Study Group

Hosted by Yonsei University in Seoul, serves the academic needs of students interested in educational studies and Asian studies.

Honors and High Honors in Asian Studies

Asian studies majors who have GPAs of 3.30 or better in the major and an overall GPA of 3.00 are encouraged to pursue honors study. A candidate for high honors must have a GPA of 3.70 in the major and an overall GPA of 3.00. Each eligible student undertakes a project, the form of which — a written research paper, an exhibition, a performance — is decided in consultation with the student’s honors adviser. To qualify for honors, the project must be judged by a committee of two faculty members to be of at least A quality. For high honors the project must be so judged by three faculty members from at least two different departments, and in addition the candidate must pass with distinction an oral examination conducted by the three-member committee. Often, the project for honors or high honors is begun on a study group, or during the junior year or fall semester of the senior year, in any 300- or 400-level course or any independent study course. The project is continued through the spring term in ASIA 499 - Special Studies for Honors .

Majors and Minors

Major

Asian Studies Major

Minor

Asian Studies Minor