East Asian Studies, Bachelor of Arts College of Letters & Science

The Major Program

The East Asian Studies major gives the student an understanding of East Asia and Southeast Asia through interdisciplinary studies, including courses on East Asian countries within the humanities and social sciences. Students are encouraged to pursue study abroad opportunities, as well as other guided studies pertaining to East and Southeast Asia.

The Program

The program offers core courses in East Asian humanities and social sciences, including history, comparative literature, languages, philosophy and religion, political science, sociology, as well as courses focused on Southeast Asia. Science courses that closely engage the student of East and/or Southeast Asia are also eligible to count towards the major.

Along with taking the lower division and upper division depth subject courses; the student may choose additional courses that concentrate on a special field of interest, such as anthropology or history, or special courses such as honor thesis, independent study, internships, and study abroad.

Programs, Internships, & Career Alternatives

To enhance the student’s understanding of East and Southeast Asia, our majors are strongly encouraged to participate in UC Davis’s Study Abroad Program, which gives students the opportunity to live and experience culture within East or Southeast Asia. Our majors are also encouraged to work with UC Davis’s Internship and Career Center, which provides customized assistance for EAS students to obtain legislative, legal, and business internships and careers. Likewise, the UC Davis Sacramento and Washington Centers arrange internships and run full-credit academic programs in Sacramento and Washington D.C., with a wide range of opportunities for our majors. Graduating EAS majors are prepared for employment in government agencies (such as Foreign Service), state agencies, international or non-governmental organizations (NGO, such as the United Nations), foundations,  journalism, teaching, counseling, and companies with international business interests, trade, or finance. The broad-based and multidisciplinary components of this major program enhance career prospects in jobs that demand knowledge of the cultures of East and Southeast Asia.

Major Advisors

2216 Social Science & Humanities Building; 530-752-9241; Advisor.

Preparatory Subject Matter
Choose two:8
History of East Asian Civilization
History of East Asian Civilization
Korean Culture & Society: From Ancient Three Kingdoms to the Global K-Pop
Choose one:3-4
Arts of Asia
Arts of Asia (Discontinued)
Chinese Business Culture
Modern Chinese Literature (In English)
Great Books of China (in English)
Literature of East Asia
Masterworks of Japanese Literature (in English)
Japanese Language & Culture (in English)
Introduction to the Literature of China & Japan
Introduction to Chinese Philosophy
Choose two (or the equivalent) of Chinese, Japanese, or other East Asian language study:
Choose a series:10
Elementary Chinese
and Elementary Chinese
Elementary Japanese
and Elementary Japanese
Preparatory Subject Matter Subtotal21-22
Depth Subject Matter
Choose 24 units:24
Buddhism in Global Culture
Meditation & Culture
Ethnology of Southeast Asia
Culture & Political Economy in Contemporary China
Buddhist Art
Early Chinese Art
Chinese Painting
Early Modern Chinese Painting
Art from China 1900 to the Present
The Arts of Japan
Undergraduate Seminar in Art History: Chinese
Undergraduate Seminar in Art History: Japanese
Daoist Traditions
Confucian Traditions
Chinese Film
Modern Chinese Drama
Modern Chinese Fiction (in English)
Western Influences on 20th-Century Chinese Literature (in English)
Chinese Poetry (in English)
Traditional Chinese Fiction (in English)
Poetry of China & Japan (in English)
Topics in Chinese Literature: Crime & Punishment
Topics in Chinese Literature: Women Writers (in English)
Topics in Chinese Literature: The Knight-Errant (in English)
Topics in Chinese Literature: The City in Fiction (in English)
Topics in Chinese Literature: The Literature of 20th-Century Taiwan (in English)
Topics in Chinese Literature: Popular Literature (in English)
Topics in Chinese Literature: Scholar & The Courtesan (in English)
Great Writers of China: Texts & Context (in English)
International Community Development: Asia
Hong Kong Cinema
Japanese Cinema
The Forms of Asian Literature
Japanese Literature on Film
World Textiles: Eastern Hemisphere
Introduction to Traditional Chinese Embodied Culture
Traditional Chinese Physical Culture
Daoist Philosophy in Traditional Chinese Movement Culture
Asian Theatre & Drama: Contexts & Forms
Cinema & Society in China
East Asian Studies Seminar
Economy of East Asia
Undergraduate Proseminar in History: China to 1800
Undergraduate Proseminar in History: China Since 1800
Undergraduate Proseminar in History: Japan
Classical China
High Imperial China
Late Imperial China
19th-Century China: The Empire Confronts the West
The Chinese Revolution
History of the People's Republic of China
Special Topics in Chinese History to 1800
Special Topics in Chinese History after 1800
Sex & Society in Modern Chinese History
Aristocratic & Feudal Japan
Early Modern Japan
Modern Japan
Business & Labor in Modern Japan
Education & Technology in Modern Japan
History of Modern Korea
A History of Vietnam
Japanese Literature in Translation: The Early Period
Japanese Literature in Translation: The Middle Period
Japanese Literature in Translation: The Modern Period
Modern Japanese Literature: War & Revolution
Modern Japanese Literature: Hero & Anti-Hero
Japanese Culture Through Film
Modern Japanese Autobiographies (in English)
Poetry of China & Japan (in English)
Japanese Popular Culture
Traditional Japanese Drama
Love, Sexuality & the Family in Modern Japanese Literature
Tourism & Heritage in Japan
Introduction to Japanese Folklore
Japanese Literature on Film
Japanese Women Writers
The Supernatural in Japan
The “Other” in Modern Japanese Literature & Culture
The Culture of Japanese Food
Japan Travelogue: Ethnographic Writing on Japanese Culture & People
Sexuality & Love in Premodern Japanese Literature
Musics of East & Southeast Asia
Government & Politics in East Asia: Japan
Islam in Asia
RST 170
(Discontinued)
Buddhist Art
Ch'an (Zen) Buddhism
Daoist Traditions
Sociology of Third World Development
Sociological Perspectives on East Asia
Markets, Culture & Inequality in China
Depth Subject Matter Subtotal24
Elective Requirement
Choose 16 units:16
Any EAS special course1; any CHN or JPN upper division course; any Depth Subject Matter course; any upper division EAP course focusing on East Asia or Southeast Asia.
Elective Requirement Subtotal16
Total Units61-62
1

Approved courses: EAS 190, EAS 192, EAS 194H, EAS 196A-EAS 196B, EAS 198—maximum 12 units from this list