In keeping with one of the purposes of this blog, I’d like to introduce a new curricular development.
We in the East Asian Studies Department feel strongly that our job is to enable students to pursue their interests in East Asian Studies and to find ways for students to push themselves further in their academic work. The process of Program Review that we engaged in last year provided us an excellent opportunity to consider the current state of our programs systematically. We have been fortunate over the last several years, and that good fortune has allowed us to grow. With the increase in the size of the Department faculty, we offer more courses on a wider variety of subjects. This has enabled us to make some important changes in our program.
Those of you who have been majors or minors in the Department for a while are probably aware that we have long had a rule in the Department that banned near-native and native speakers of one of the languages we teach from majoring in that language. For example, native speakers of Chinese were not able to major in Chinese Studies. The reasons for this were very practical. The Chinese Studies and Japanese Studies majors require 16 credits of language via completion of the second and third-year language courses. In the earlier history of the Department, we simply did not offer enough advanced language courses or non-language culture courses that could serve as substitutes for the major language requirement. That has now changed.
Beginning immediately, students with advanced language skills in Chinese or Japanese may major in Chinese Studies or Japanese Studies respectively. To do so, you will have to meet the following criteria. You must demonstrate language competence equivalent to the second semester of third-year (EAC 302 or EAJ 302, respectively). You will then arrange with your advisor appropriate course substitutions for the language requirement. One of the substituted courses must be a course in a relevant Classical language. For Chinese Studies that would be either EAC 310 or EAC 311. For Japanese, EAC 310, EAC 311, or a course in Classical Japanese would count. Classical Chinese counts in the Japanese Studies major because of the historical fact that Japanese used Classical Chinese (known in Japanese as Kanbun) as an educated language through most of Japan’s imperial history. The balance of the 16 credit language requirement would be made up by substituting other appropriate intermediate and upper level courses.
All of these substitutions need to be approved by your East Asian Studies academic advisor. If you are in this category, I encourage you to discuss this either with your advisor (if you have one) or any professor in the Department.
