Postgraduate research programmes
The results of the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) 2008 has 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 the 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.
- Research programmes in East Asian Studies
- Research programmes in Chinese Studies
- Research programmes in Japanese Studies
- Programmes
- Further Information
Research in East Asian Studies
Besides postgraduate research focused on a specific country or language area, staff in East Asian Studies can supervise postgraduate research degrees in areas of their expertise but that go across boundaries and that relate to the wider area of East Asia broadly defined. Thus, comparative studies of topics across the region can be supervised under the remit of East Asian Studies. Examples might include: religions as they are transplanted across East Asia; interactions between different social, cultural and political realms in East and Southeast Asian countries; transnational networks and intra-regional migrations; comparative or cross-cultural studies of education practices; studies of medical practice and movement within the East Asian region; studies on popular cultural dynamics across East Asia; and aspects of activity in countries in East Asia, broadly defined, that do not relate specifically to Japan or China but that are based in expertise provided by staff in Chinese and/or Japanese Studies.
Research programmes 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, Macau as well as the diasporic Chinese communities in Europe, Southeast Asia, North America and elsewhere. China is researched, from a historical and comparative perspective, in the global context to understand how China and Chinese-speaking world influence and impact upon the global community, and vice versa. On a theoretical level, research on China is informing social science theorisation on the one hand, and social science theories help with the understanding of China and its development on the other.
Research programmes in Japanese Studies
Japanese Studies staff at Manchester focus primarily on modern and contemporary Japan, and offer postgraduate supervision in Japanese society, culture, religion, popular culture, history, education, gender studies, and the Japanese mass media, through anthropological, sociological, textual and gender and cultural studies approaches. Manchester's strong support for cross-disciplinary research and shared supervision means that a wide range of areas can be addressed by staff in Japanese Studies and beyond. We welcome informal enquiries about potential postgraduate research topics: among topics currently being supervised are the diaries and writings of pilgrims in 21st century Japan, and conversion choices among young Japanese in northern Japan.
Programmes
- Chinese Studies MPhil
- Chinese Studies PhD
- East Asian Studies MPhil
- East Asian Studies PhD
- Japanese Studies MPhil
- Japanese Studies PhD
- Translation and Intercultural Studies PhD
- Translation and Intercultural Studies MPhil
Further Information
For information on how to apply, fees and funding, and postgraduate study in the School of Languages, Linguistics and Cultures, please visit the: