East Asian Area Studies

Bachelor of Arts
Master of Arts
Graduate Certificate
Courses of Instruction

Taper Hall of Humanities 331M
(213) 740-2991
FAX: (213) 740-8409
E-mail: easc@usc.edu
Director: Otto Schnepp, Ph.D.

Associated Faculty
Professors: Keiiti Aki, Ph.D. (Earth Sciences); Jonathan D. Aronson, Ph.D. (International Relations); Gordon M. Berger, Ph.D. (History); Arvind Bhambri, D.B.A. (Management and Organization); Dominic C.N. Cheung, Ph.D. (Comparative Literature and East Asian Languages and Cultures); John Elliott, Ph.D. (Economics); Robert S. Ellwood, Jr., Ph.D. (Religion); Robert Friedheim, Ph.D. (International Relations); Murray Fromson (Journalism); Michael G. Fry, Ph.D. (International Relations); Charlotte Furth, Ph.D. (History); Peter Gordon, Ph.D. (Urban Planning and Development); Mieko Han, Ph.D. (East Asian Languages and Cultures); David James, Ph.D. (Cinema-Television); Jeffrey B. Nugent, Ph.D. (Economics); John S. Odell, Ph.D. (International Relations); William Rideout, Ph.D. (Education); John E. Wills, Jr., Ph.D. (History)
Associate Professors: H. C. Cheng, Ph.D. (Economics); Eugene Cooper, Ph.D. (Anthropology); Roger V. Dingman, Ph.D. (History); JoAnn Farver, Ph.D. (Psychology); George A. Hayden, Ph.D. (East Asian Languages and Cultures); Eric Heikkila, Ph.D. (Urban Planning and Development); Hajime Hoji, Ph.D. (Linguistics and East Asian Languages and Cultures); Velma Houston, Ph.D. (Theatre); Eun Mee Kim, Ph.D. (Sociology); Nam-Kil Kim, Ph.D. (East Asian Languages and Cultures); Steven Lamy, Ph.D. (International Relations); Audrey Li, Ph.D. (East Asian Languages and Cultures); Peter Nosco, Ph.D. (East Asian Languages and Cultures); Stanley Rosen, Ph.D. (Political Science); Gary Seaman, Ph.D. (Anthropology)
Assistant Professors: Bettine Birge, Ph.D. (East Asian Languages and Cultures); Kendall Brown, M.A. (Fine Arts); Meiling Cheng, Ph.D. (Theatre); Soo-Young Chin, Ph.D. (Anthropology); Saori Katada, Ph.D. (International Relations); Lon Kurashige, Ph.D. (History); Ann Lee, Ph.D. (East Asian Languages and Cultures); David Leiwei Li, Ph.D. (English); Edward Park, Ph.D. (Sociology)
Lecturers: Hisako Asano, M.F.A. (Fine Arts); Darrel Davis, Ph.D. (East Asian Languages and Cultures); Kathryn Ragsdale, Ph.D. (East Asian Languages and Cultures)
Adjunct Professor: Richard Drobnick, Ph.D. (Director, IBEAR, International Business; Vice Provost, International Affairs)
Adjunct Associate Professors: Jack Lewis, Ph.D. (International Business); Vasisht K. Malhotra, Ph.D. (International Relations)
Visiting Associate Professor: Koichi Mara, Ph.D. (East Asian Area Studies)
Emeritus Professors: Peter A. Berton, Ph.D. (International Relations); Otto Schnepp, Ph.D. (Chemistry); George O. Totten III, Ph.D. (Political Science)
Librarians: Janice W. Hanks, M.L.S.; Joy Hyon Kim, M.L.S.; Kenneth Klein, Ph.D.

Programs
The East Asian Studies Center provides interdisciplinary studies of China, Japan and Korea. It offers an undergraduate major in East Asian Area Studies, a joint Journalism/East Asian Area Studies undergraduate major and the Master of Arts in East Asian Area Studies. Its faculty are professors from departments throughout the college and several professional schools who teach and do research primarily on East Asia. The center's interdisciplinary approach allows students to acquire unusually broad exposure to many ways of learning about the region.
The East Asian Studies Center promotes and coordinates teaching, research and development of academic programs concerning East Asia, regardless of discipline or school, on a university-wide basis. East Asia as used here means mainly China, Japan and Korea; it secondarily includes Southeast Asia, Central Asia and Siberia. Visiting scholars may also be named from among persons outside the university who wish to do research at USC and contribute to the goals of the center.
The center also advises students participating in the Year-in-Japan program of the California Private Universities and Colleges (CALPUC). Students may study in Japan for one year at either Waseda University in Tokyo or Nanzan University in Nagoya; a one-semester program is also available at Tokyo International University just outside Tokyo. Students also have opportunities to study in China, Korea and Taiwan through programs administered by the Office of Overseas Studies. Any undergraduate student of good academic standing is eligible to participate in these study-abroad programs, for full academic credit at USC. USC financial aid is applicable to these study-abroad programs, and additional scholarship assistance is frequently offered through the center by local civic organizations.
The center also promotes and coordinates academic exchange with other institutions with which USC maintains cooperative relations in the United States and abroad. The center serves, for example, as headquarters for the USC/UCLA Joint East Asian Language and Area Studies National Resource Center. Graduate students with special interests in East Asia may take courses at UCLA through USC and may also work, where appropriate, with certain UCLA faculty. UCLA graduate students may similarly take courses at USC and work with USC faculty, for credit at UCLA in East Asian studies. The center facilitates cooperation and provides graduate fellowships to students at both institutions.

Bachelor of Arts

Major Requirements for the Bachelor of Arts
Requirements for the lower division are: EALC 110 and EASC 150 or the equivalent; a minimum of four courses in one East Asian language (or the proficiency equivalent); and seven upper division courses approved for the major in addition to the language courses used to meet the requirements. One lower division course other than EALC 110 and EASC 150 may be substituted for one of the seven upper division courses. Upper division courses must include those from at least three departments, one of which must be History. At least one course must be taken on two of the following: China, Japan or Korea.

Journalism/East Asian Area Studies Combined Major
Students admitted to the School of Journalism may elect to follow a combined Journalism/East Asian Area Studies major. The major consists of eight journalism classes, six East Asian classes and four semesters of an East Asian language. General education requirements for the Division of Social Sciences and Communication will be followed.
The required journalism classes are JOUR 201, 205, 307 and 462; plus one course chosen from among 400, 435, 440, 441, 443, 447, 448 or 474; plus one upper-division journalism elective.
The East Asian requirements are a choice of either EASC 150 or EALC 110; five upper division classes in East Asian Studies (one of which must be from the History Department); and a fourth semester of an East Asian language. (The first three semesters of East Asian language study satisfy the university's language requirement.)
Students meeting the School of Journalism graduation requirements will be awarded a B.A. degree in Journalism/East Asian Area Studies.

Requirements for the Minor in East Asian Area Studies
The minor in East Asian Area Studies gives students the opportunity to supplement more narrowly defined departmental majors with a multi-disciplinary focus on an area of increasingly great importance to our nation in general and our region in particular. It further provides a way to organize general education requirements and electives in a coherent package which, when completed, allows the student to demonstrate achieved competence in the study of East Asia. There is no language requirement.
Twenty-four units are required from among the more than 120 courses offered on East Asia at the university. Students are required to take EALC 110 and EASC 150; and at least four upper-division four-unit courses (16 units). At least one of these courses must be from the History Department and one from the humanities area. At least one course must be taken on two of the following: China, Japan or Korea.

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 Requirements for Graduation and the Graduate School 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.