Master's Programme in Asian Studies
The Master’s programme in Asian Studies is a regionally-focused multidisciplinary program grounded in the Humanities and offered by the Department of Asian, Middle Eastern and Turkish Studies. It is designed for students with backgrounds in Chinese, Japanese and Korean Studies who wish to broaden their understanding of East Asia.
The two-year programme combines a wide range of content courses with advanced language training. Fields of possible specialization of MA research projects include translation studies and linguistics, literature, visual and performing arts, media cultures, cultural heritage and modern policies.
Potential supervisors and their areas of expertise (109 Kb)
The programme consists of four semesters of full-time studies. During the first two semesters students take compulsory and elective courses (60 ECTS). The third semester (30 ECTS) provides an opportunity for exchange studies at another university in East Asia or Europe, internships, or taking elective courses offered at the Department and across Stockholm University as well as other universities or institutions of higher education in Sweden (or a combination of these three options). The fourth semester is devoted to the degree project, which entails writing a master’s thesis (30 ECTS). The thesis writing and all course instructions are conducted in English.
With its flexible programme format, the MA in Asian Studies allows students to tailor their studies in accordance with their interests or career ambitions. The programme prepares students for a diversity of careers in the public and private sector that require analytical thinking, deep knowledge of East Asia and relevant language skills. The students who graduate from the programme are also eligible to proceed to third cycle education in Asian Studies.
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Programme overview
First Semester
The first semester comprises four compulsory courses in the following order:
Issues and Approaches in East Asian Studies (7.5 ECTS)
Cultural Flows and Political Relations in East Asia (7.5 ECTS)
Scientific Methods and Research Ethics 7.5 ECTS
and an advanced language course in accordance with an individually selected language track:
Advanced Japanese I (7.5 ECTS)
Advanced Chinese I (7.5 ECTS)
Advanced Korean I (7.5 ECTS)Second Semester
The second semester comprises of four courses, including two compulsory courses:
English for Academic Research (7.5 ECTS Main subject area: English, Dept. of English)
and an advanced language course in accordance with an individually selected language track:
Advanced Japanese II (7.5 ECTS)
Advanced Chinese II (7.5 ECTS)
Advanced Korean II (7.5 ECTS)In addition, students have the opportunity to choose the following elective courses:
Contemporary Cultural Politics and Identity in East Asia (7.5 ECTS)
East Asian History (7.5 ECTS)
Queer Asia (7.5 ECTS)The elective courses are to be selected in consultation with the Director of Studies. It is required that students take at least two of these courses. Students are assigned a supervisor for their Master's thesis project by the Director of MA Asian Studies who has prior to that consulted with potential supervisors at the Department. Students then begin their individual thesis tutorials.
Third Semester
The third semester provides an opportunity for exchange studies at another university in East Asia or Europe, internships, or taking elective courses offered at the Department of Asian, Middle Eastern and Turkish Studies, across Stockholm University as well as other universities or institutions of higher education in Sweden. It is also possible to combine all three options. Individual thesis tutorials with the supervisor continue throughout this semester.Exchange Studies in East Asia
Students in the Japanese language-track can apply for exchange studies at Chuo University in Tokyo or Osaka University. Students in the Chinese language-track can apply for exchange studies at Hang Seng University of Hong Kong. Students in the Korean language-track can apply for exchange studies at Sogang University in Seoul. The application process begins at the end of the first semester. All questions related to the exchange application process should be directed to the Director of Studies.For more information on Exchange studies:
Study abroadInternships
Students interested in conducting internships are free to arrange placements by themselves. However, the selection needs to be approved by the Director of Studies and the Director of MA Asian Studies before the start of the internship. The Director of Studies provides a certificate stating that the internship will be awarded ECTS and that the student will have a supervisor from the Department. For more information students are asked to consult the
Training Programme within East Asian Studies (237 Kb)
guidelines, the Director of Studies and the Director of MA Asian Studies Programme.
Elective Courses
Instead of exchange studies or internship students have an opportunity to choose elective courses either offered at the Department and across Stockholm University as well as other universities or institutions of higher education in Sweden. The selection needs to be consulted on with the MA thesis supervisor and the Director of Studies during the second semester.Fourth Semester
The fourth semester is devoted to writing a master’s thesis. MA thesis defenses are held in two rounds: in early June and in late August. For more information, please refer to the
MA Thesis Protocol 2022 (275 Kb)
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How to apply
Selection process
Additional eligibility criteriaThe selection to the programme is based on the following five criteria: the specialization and grades of the Bachelor’s Programme studied, the quality and topic of the Bachelor’s Thesis, the motivation letter explaining the relevance of previous studies in relation to the programme, the reference letter as well as an interview that, however, will only be conducted if deemed necessary.
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More information
MA Thesis Protocol
MA Thesis Protocol 2022 (275 Kb)
Training Programme within East Asian Studies
Training Programme within East Asian Studies (237 Kb)
Scholarships
Scholarships and other funding options for master's programmes at Stockholm University:
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Meet us
Meet our teachers
A Range of expertise related to Asian Studies
A broad range of expertise represented by our faculty members encompass diverse topics and approaches related to Asian Studies and include:
Topics: Visual arts/aesthetic culture in Asia (19th – 21st centuries: graphic arts, filmic media), manga/comics, anime and animation
Approaches: Media Studies; Art Theory/Aesthetics; Museum/Exhibition Studies
Other supervision areas: Film Studies, Intermediality Studies, Narratology, Gender Studies, Queer Studies, Intersectionality Studies, Cultural Studies, Game Studies
Topics: Sinophone and Hong Kong literature, translation in theory and practice, Confucianism and popular belief in China
Approaches: Sinological, Philological, Translation Studies
Other supervision areas: Chinese-European intercultural relations
Topics: pre-modern, modern and contemporary Korean literature; intellectual history; cultural heritage policies in the East Asian regional context
Approaches: textual analysis, comparative literature, historico-cultural approach, critical heritage studies
Other supervision areas: cultural memory and identity; local and regional culture
Stina Jelbring, Associate Professor
Topics: classical Japanese literature
Approaches: metaphor theory, translation studies, philology, close reading, stylistics
Other supervision areas: modern and premodern Japanese literature, Japanese script, ancient Japanese history and culture
Gabriel Jonsson, Associate Professor/Docent
Topics: Korean politics and economics
Approaches: social science and qualitative methods
Other supervision areas: Japanese-Korean Relations, Chinese politics
Topics: Modern Korean literature, contemporary South Korean women’s literature (prose and fiction), literary translation
Approaches: Koreanlogy, narratology, translation studies, gender studies
Other supervision areas: Korean popular culture, contemporary South Korean society
Gunnar Jinmei Linder, Associate Professor
Topics: Performative arts, with a special focus on pre-Meiji performative arts, aesthetics, cultural history.
Approaches: Text studies, including philological studies, but also using a theory of semiology in music (J. J. Nattiez’s tripartitional approach), as well as theories of performativity in music and performance theory.
Other supervision areas: pedagogics/education; inter-cultural communication and understanding.
Mitsuyo Kuwano Lidén, Lecturer
Topics: Japanese linguistics (modern Japanese grammar, especially in demonstratives; Japanese pedagogical grammar within syntax, semantics and pragmatics), foreign language acquisition, Japanese language education
Approaches: cognitive linguistics, contrastive linguistics, corpus linguistics, psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics
Other supervision areas: translation
Ewa Machotka, Associate Professor/Docent
Topics: art and visual culture of Japan (mainly early-modern culture and contemporary art),
Approaches: global art history (incl. Postcolonialism, Orientalism, Japonism, nationalism), social art history, gender art history, ecocriticism and environmental art history,
Other supervision areas: socially engaged artistic practices; gender art history (images of women in early modern and modern printed culture), and art historiography (art theory, exhibiting practices), multimodality and text-image relationships in premodern Japanese culture.
Topics: modern & contemporary literature & culture of China and Taiwan
Approaches: memory, gender, urban studies; social history, inter- and transcultural studies
Other supervision areas: Sino-European studies, historiography, film and theater, world literature, exile
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Contact
Do you have questions about the Master's programme in Asian Studies?
Director of Asian Studies (Chinese, Japanese and Korean Language and Culture)
