Asian Languages and Cultures

Research in Asian Languages and Cultures is grounded in the humanities focusing on Chinese, Japanese and Korean Studies.

Research subjects include literary studies, religion, culture and aesthetics, society, politics, history, environmental humanities, human rights, linguistics and translation studies.

Literary studies is one of the main topics of research within Asian Languages and Cultures and the focus varies from classical to pre-modern and modern literature. As an interdisciplinary field of study it engages with other research areas such as regional and national history, culture, gender studies and linguistics.

Culture and aesthetics represent a broad category of research ranging from traditional popular culture, manga studies and visual arts to musicology, art history and digital and environmental humanities. Research is represented mainly in the section of Japanese language and culture, but also to some extent within the section of Chinese language and culture.

Society, politics and history represents a category of research which is leaning more towards the social sciences, however still firmly grounded within the humanities. Research is conducted on topics such as human rights, migration, identity, ethnicity, diaspora and minorities, as well as international relations and history of religions.

Within linguistics and translation, research is conducted on topics such as second language learning, philology and phonetics as well as translation of literature. Linguistics and translation research is represented in all three language areas within Asian Languages and Cultures.