Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies

Chuan Lyu Lectures, 2018

The 2018 Chuan Lyu Lectures in Taiwan Studies will be given by the Prof. Joseph R. Allen under the overall title of "Image and Ideology in Colonial and Post-Colonial Taiwan". Professor Allen is a Professor Emeritus of Chinese literature and cultural studies and Founding Chair of the Department Asian Languages and Literatures at the University of Minnesota. His current research focuses on photography in Taiwan. For details of the talks, please...

Islam & Science in Modern Egypt

Prof. Khaled Fahmy, His Majesty Sultan Qaboos Bin Sa‘id Professor of Modern Arabic Studies, delivered his inaugural lecture on Thursday, 22nd February, 2018.

Japanese Studies Offers New Scholarship in Partnership with the Toshiba Foundation

A new partnership with Toshiba International Foundation has established a new Toshiba Cambridge Japan and the World Graduate Scholarship.

Chuan Lyu Lectures, 2017

The 2017 Chuan Lyu Lectures in Taiwan Studies were given by the well-known Taiwan anthropologist Prof. CHANG Hsun (張珣) under the overall title of "Religion and Social Transformations in Contemporary Taiwan". Prof. Chang received her Ph.D in Cultural Anthropology from the University of California at Berkeley in 1993 and is currently a Research Fellow at the Institute of Ethnology at Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan. Prof. Chang presented two fascinating lectures on the current developments of the Mazu cult in Taiwan. For details of the talks, including photos and video recordings from the event, please...

Brexit and the importance of languages for Britain

"The UK desperately needs more, not fewer, internationally minded citizens who are competent in languages other than English" - In the second of a new series of comment pieces written by linguists at Cambridge, Dr Heather Inwood, Lecturer in Modern & Contemporary Chinese Literature and Culture, argues that Britain needs to improve its language skills to build trade relations and break through cultural divides.

Research in Rabbinic Hebrew Philology

Over the course of the academic years 2016-2019, the Hebrew philology group at FAMES will host a research project sponsored by the AHRC. The title of the project is: A Diplomatic Edition of Mishna-Codex Kaufmann (A50). The core project team consists of Dr Michael Rand (PI), Dr Aaron Horkohl (Co-I) and Dr Shai Heijmans (Researcher), and in the years 2017-2019 we also expect to be joined by a second Researcher. The aim of our work will be to produce a critical edition of Ms. Kaufmann A50, the single most important (almost) complete European manuscript of the Mishna, and it is our hope that this edition will benefit both researchers in Rabbinic language and culture, as well as those members of the wider public who have an interest in classical Jewish texts.

2009 Hakka Yimin temple festival priest chanting.jpg

Modalities of Doing Religion

‘How do people do religion in China?’ This is a much better question to ask than ‘How many religions are there in China?’ In examining the ways in which Chinese people have been engaged in religious activities historically as well as today Dr Adam Chau has identified five ‘modalities of doing religion’: discursive/scriptural; personal-cultivational; liturgical; immediate-practical; and relational.

Thinking Through Agriculture

From early China’s legalist philosophers through to Mao Zedong, one of the most enduring descriptions of China over the past three millennia has been its image as the ultimate agrarian society. Professor Roel Sterckx is studying how farming life influenced the political and social ideologies that shaped the Chinese empire.

Documenting dialects

Over the last twenty years Professor Geoffrey Khan, together with his PhD students and post-doctoral researchers, has been undertaking a major project to document all of the North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic dialects. Some of the dialects are now spoken by only a handful of people and some have become extinct over the last few years.

Latest news

John Nilsson-Wright BBC World News interview on North Korea Summit

May 21, 2018

Barak Kushner gives talk at Stanford 'Finding Meaning in Defeat: East Asia's Battle Over Postwar Justice'

May 15, 2018

Roel Sterckx delivering Chen Yinque Lectures at Sun Yat-sen University

May 10, 2018

Japanese Studies MPhil student, Anna Melkina, has article published in 'Russia and the Pacific' journal.

May 10, 2018

Chinese Archives and Digital Website Production Conference, 1 – 4 May 2018

May 07, 2018

Talk by Dr Yan Hai-Jian, Nanjing Normal University: 比较中的审视：战后国民政府对日本战犯审判的特质

May 02, 2018

'Berber Dynasties of the Medieval Maghrib' public lecture in Doha by Prof. Amira K. Bennison

Apr 25, 2018

Cambridge workshop: Propaganda and Journalism during/on the second Sino-Japanese War 1937-1945

Apr 11, 2018

Conference on Prisoners of War and Civilian Internees from the Viewpoint of East Asia

Apr 11, 2018

'Predicting Chaos: The Debate on Denuclearization Isn't Over' new article by John Nilsson-Wright

Mar 29, 2018

Dhammachai International Research Institute (DIRI) and FAMES sign agreement for academic cooperation

Mar 27, 2018

Hitotsubashi University students and staff visit FAMES

Mar 22, 2018

GENRON NPO Tokyo Conference 2018

Mar 15, 2018

Wartime Everydayness and the Decolonization of WWII

Mar 13, 2018

BATJ Seminar “Japanese Language Education for Welfare: From Theory to Practice” held in FAMES

Mar 12, 2018

Cool Japanese Men: Studying New Masculinities at Cambridge

Feb 09, 2018

Emeritus Professor Peter Kornicki publishes new book: Languages, scripts, and Chinese texts in East Asia

Feb 05, 2018

'Cool Japanese Men' Dr Brigitte Steger Publishes new book of student's work

Jan 29, 2018

Are Tensions Thawing on the Korean Peninsula?

Jan 25, 2018

Dr Barak Kushner delivers keynote presentation at Waseda University’s international symposium “Towards the Creation of Reconciliation Studies"

Jan 17, 2018

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Welcome to AMES

Cambridge has a long and distinctive tradition in the study of the Middle East and Asia. This Faculty prides itself on exploring these fields through the local languages and encourages students to learn through real world engagement. If you are interested in these world regions and want to discover their languages, cultures, histories, religions, and politics, then this is the home for you.