East Asian Studies

Understanding Asia and the Pacific Rim, which are major forces in international affairs, by studying the arts, culture, religion, history, economics, international relations, politics, philosophy, literature, and science and technology of the region

www.bucknell.edu/eastasianstudies

Related Student Organizations and University Programs

  • Bucknell Animé
  • Burmese Cultural Association
  • Chinese Culture Association
  • International Relations Club
  • I-Council (international group)
  • Japan Society
  • Korean Cultural Association
  • Languages and Cultures Residential College
  • Shotokan Karate Club
  • South Asian Students Association
  • Students for Asian Awareness at Bucknell
  • Vietnamese Club

Career Paths

Students who major in East Asian Studies find that opportunities await them in education, business, law, science, government, medicine, engineering and cultural and technological exchange. Bucknell graduates live and work in Beijing, Kyoto, Shanghai, Tokyo and other Asian cities.

Grants & Awards

An East Asian Studies faculty member has recently secured a grant from the Japan Foundation.

Internships

East Asian Studies majors can gain career experience through summer internships. Recently, students have interned at:

  • PRTM (management consultants)
  • AIG Private Equity

Study Abroad

The East Asian Studies department participates in numerous nationally-renowned programs for study abroad, offering students a variety of ways to study for a semester or a year overseas.

Students are encouraged to spend their junior year in China or Japan.

Bucknell is a member of the Associated Kyoto Program, in which students spend their junior year at Doshisha University. It also is a member of IES, the Institute for the International Education of Students, which offers programs in Tokyo and Nagoya in Japan, and in Beijing, China, among others.

Graduate School

Some East Asian Studies majors choose to pursue their academic interests in graduate school after Bucknell. Recently, alumni of the East Asian Studies program have gone on to programs including University of San Diego for international relations and Pacific Studies.

Program Details

  • The East Asian Studies major requires an emphasis on either China or Japan.
  • The department offers three minors — East Asian Studies, Chinese and Japanese.
  • The department offers five levels of language study in Chinese and Japanese, plus business Chinese and opportunities for independent study.
  • In Asia we find another set of classics, other ways of imagining the universe and other ways of putting that imagination into practice.
  • Students in East Asian studies are challenged to confront their own traditions, beliefs and practices from new perspectives.
  • Learning about other cultures gives students an increased sensitivity — not only to that which is new, but also to the familiar.

Faculty

Students in the East Asian Studies program interact closely with faculty members who serve as mentors in coursework, independent research and internships.

Elizabeth Armstrong
M.A. Indiana
Scholarly interests: Japanese language, Translation Studies

Song Chen
Ph.D. Harvard
Scholarly interestes: Chinese history, state-society relations in China between the eight and eighteenth century

Erik Lofgren
Ph.D. Stanford
Scholarly interests: Japanese language, literature and film

James Orr
Ph.D. Stanford
Scholarly interests: Japanese history, Japanese pacifism, remembrance of World War II, youth sports culture

Anne Pusey
M.A., M.S. Bucknell
Scholarly interests: Chinese language

Sufeng Xu
Ph.D. McGill
Scholarly interests: include late Ming courtesan culture, 18th century Qing women poets, and intellectual change in the Ming-Qing periods

Affiliated Faculty

Wei Ge, economics
Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania
Scholarly interests: economics of the Pacific Rim, international trade and finance

James Shields, comparative humanities and Asian thought
Ph.D. McGill
Scholarly interests: modern Buddhist philosophy and Asian religious and philosophical ethics

Stuart Young, religion
Ph.D., Princeton
Scholarly interests: intersections between Buddhism and indigenous traditions, religious biography, and Buddhist material culture

Zhiqun Zhu, political science
Ph.D. University of South Carolina
Scholarly interests: East Asian international relations, Chinese politics

Facilities & Resources

Professor Anne Pusey has developed online Chinese language resources for student use, including:

  • Sound grids for students to learn single tones, two-tone combinations, initials and finals and their combinations
  • Tonal dictation exercises (students listen to a recording, then type out their answer)
  • Character drawing movies
  • Popular songs (to reinforce vocabulary and spelling)
  • Grammar exercises

Courses Offered

Advanced Seminar: Chinese Study
Art and Politics in China
Asian Economic Development
Buddhism
Business Chinese
Business Japanese: Language and Culture
China and the World Economy
China from Ancient Times to the 18th Century
China Since 1800
Chinese I, II, III, IV, V
Chinese Philosophy
Chinese Politics
Comparative Pacific Basin Economics
Contemporary Japanese History
Traditional Chinese Tales/Stories
East Asian Civilization
East Asian Politics
From Shinto to Shogun: Premodern History
Haiku Poetry: Basho to Beats
Independent Study
Independent Study in Chinese
Independent Study in Japanese
Intellectual Conflict in Modern China
International Relations in East Asia
Introduction to Asian Religions
Introduction to Translation Studies
Introduction to Chinese Culture
Japanese I, II, III, IV, V
Japanese Culture and Society
Japanese Warrior in Literature
Modern Japanese History
Modern Japanese Literature in Translation
Passion and Perversion: Japanese Film
Pre-modern Japanese Literature in Translation
Religions of China
Religions of East Asia
Religions of Japan
Romance in Chinese Literature and Art
Seminar in East Asian History and Culture
Shinto to Shogun: Premodern Japan
Sources of Asian Tradition
The Greater Chinese Economy
The People’s Republic of China
Topics in East Asian Studies
Topics: History/Third World
Tradition and Transformation
Traditional Chinese Literature

Quick Facts

Number of full-time faculty: 6

Average number of majors per class year: 9