Master of Arts
The East Asian Studies Center offers an interdisciplinary master's degree in East Asian Area Studies. The program provides a wide range of language, cultural, social, historical, political and economic courses and faculty expertise; individual courses of study may be designed to meet both continuing academic and professional objectives. Students may concentrate primarily on one country (China, Japan, Korea) or develop region-wide expertise through a combination of course work and the thesis project.
Admission Requirements
Prerequisites
While an applicant for admission will normally have significant experience in East Asian language(s) and area studies as demonstrated through course work completed for the undergraduate degree, programs may be arranged for promising students without prior experience in East Asian studies. There is no formal language requirement for admission.
Criteria
The student should have an undergraduate record satisfactory to the center. Three letters of recommendation from professors familiar with the applicant's academic performance should be sent to the center director. All applicants are required to take the verbal and quantitative general tests of the Graduate Record Examinations.
Degree Requirements
This degree is under the jurisdiction of the Graduate School. Refer to the Requirements for Graduation section and the Graduate School section of this catalogue for general regulations. All courses applied toward the degree must be courses acceptable to the Graduate School.
Foreign Language Requirement
Students must be able to demonstrate oral and written proficiency in Chinese, Korean or Japanese through the third year level (equivalent to six semesters) before the M.A. program is completed.
Course and Thesis Requirements
Six courses (24 units), four of which must be at the 500 level or above, plus the thesis (4 units) are required. All students must complete: (1) EASC 592; (2) EALC 531, EALC 532 or EALC 533; and (3) one other course from an LAS department. The three additional courses (12 units) may be taken from LAS departments or professional schools. All courses must be approved by the center director or advisor. A maximum of two courses at the 400 level may be counted toward the degree. All students must register for EASC 594ab Master's Thesis for the thesis project.
Graduate Certificate
Requirements
Graduate students interested in East Asian Area Studies must be enrolled in an advanced degree program in the Graduate School or in a professional school at the university. While preparing for an M.A., Ph.D. or other graduate degree, they may earn a certificate in East Asian studies which certifies special area competence beyond discipline requirements. The certificate requirements provide the student with two options. The first requires that the student write a thesis and take four graduate-credit courses in East Asian studies in any department. An oral examination is given on the thesis. The second option does not require a thesis. The student instead takes six graduate-credit courses in the East Asian area and takes an oral examination on three research papers and on relevant graduate work. As a part of both options some basic East Asian history and at least two years of study or the equivalent of an East Asian language are required. The student makes the basic decisions on the program to be followed in consultation with a three-member interdisciplinary committee approved by the Director of the East Asian Studies Center.
For further information, interested students may write to: Director, East Asian Studies Center, THH 331C, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-4351.
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Produced by the USC Division of Student Affairs, Office of University Publications, May 1, 1995
univpub@stuaff.usc.edu