Research in East Asian Studies
RAE breakthrough for East Asian Studies at Manchester
The results of RAE 2008 have shown that the University of Manchester's East Asian Studies Department, founded only in 2006-2007, has already broken into the highest ranks of UK research performers in the field. A ranking based on research quality places it well within the top tier of similar departments, with only the long established and larger centres of SOAS, Oxford and Cambridge showing higher levels of world leading research. Well over a third of our department's work was judged to be of world leading or internationally excellent quality, making it now one of the UK's main research centres in the field.
We form part of the School of Languages, Linguistics and Cultures, which RAE 2008 has shown to be among the leading units of its kind in the country. Moreover, the University of Manchester has emerged from this RAE as one of the UK's top four or five universities for research and one which boasts a breadth of research achievement spread across more distinct discipline areas than any other UK institution.
Research in Chinese Studies
The research undertaken by the Centre for Chinese Studies (CCS) focuses on modern and contemporary China, particularly the second half of the 20th century, following the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. China is studied as transnational China, encompassing the whole of the Chinese-speaking world, which is centred around the mainland, but also includes Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau, as well as the diasporic Chinese communities in Europe, Southeast Asia, North America and elsewhere. Current research undertaken by CCS faculty members includes: Sino-Western interactions; contemporary Chinese culture and society; identity formation and transformation; Chinese foreign policy and security; nationalism and transnationalism; diaspora, spatial, visual and material culture of urban China; and economic transformation. The CCS brings together a range of experts from schools and faculties right across the University and forms part of a consortium, the British Inter-University China Centre (BICC), jointly established with the Universities of Oxford and Bristol.
Research in Japanese Studies
Japanese Studies was established at Manchester in the academic year 2006-7 with the appointments of Professor Ian Reader, Dr Peter Cave and Dr Mara Patessio. There are also staff working in other disciplines whose work focuses wholly or partly on Japan. Current research being carried out by staff in Japanese Studies includes: the relationship between religion and violence; the contemporary religious dynamics of 21st century Japan; the reproduction and replication of pilgrimage sites in Japan; education and socialisation in Japan; Japanese educational reforms; Japanese women's entrance into the public sphere in 19th century Japan; and women readers, writers and reading practices from the 17th to the 19th centuries.
Research Centres
- Centre for Chinese Studies (CCS)
- Confucius Institute
- Centre for Translation and Cultural Studies (CTIS)
- Migration and Diaspora Cultural Studies Network (MDCSN)
- National research centre consortia for the study of China
East Asian Studies Research Profiles
Jonathan Bunt: Teaching Japanese language and in language teaching in general, dictionaries and reference grammars and the use of online environments and partnerships, Japanese television drama and in the issues of the cultural context of language use and in subtitling and translating.
Peter Cave: Education in Japan in comparative context, especially history, literature, and maths education; educational reform in Japan; theories and practices of teaching and learning; education outside schools; contemporary Japanese society.
Jeesoon Hong: Media Culture, Body, Space, Intellectual History of China.
Sharon Kinsella: Culture, politics, and media production, in Japan from the 1960s to the present, especially in the 1990s and 2000s.
Kaby Kung: Chinese women's writings and Chinese feminism, Modern and transnational Chinese cinema, Modern and contemporary Chinese literature, Comparative literature.
Wei-Hsin Lin: Modern and contemporary Chinese literature, Chinese films, Cultural studies of modern and contermporary China.
Mara Patessio: Development of the feminist movement in Japan; Meiji social history; women in the public sphere in 19th century Japan; missionaries (especially Western female missionaries) in Japan; the development of the Japanese press.
Ian Reader: Contemporary religious dynamics in Japan; new religious movements; pilgrimage; religion and violence; religion and the media; religion, law and politics; religion, commercialisation and commodification; sociology of religion; Japanese popular culture and society.
Dagmar Schäfer: History of science and technology in Song and Ming (960–1644) China, economy and social History, material Culture
William Schroeder: Queer China, Sexuality, Globalism, Kinship, Affect
James St. André: Chinese-English translation history; translation theory; Crime fiction in English and Chinese; Ming-Qing popular fiction.