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Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies

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Goddess Mazu in the form of a cute doll

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 from the event, please...

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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.

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Kaufman A50

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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The Parthenon Mosque

The early modern Parthenon was a monumental palimpsest. The layers were architectural: the Parthenon mosque had previously been a church of the Virgin Mary, and before that a temple of Athena. But how these layers were interpreted depended on who was looking: European or Ottoman travellers, or the muezzin of Athens.

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Laura Moretti runs the Fourth Graduate Summer School in Japanese Early-modern Palaeography

Aug 18, 2017

John Nilsson-Wright examines the North Korea crisis: What does Kim Jong-un really want?

Aug 16, 2017

Laura Moretti and Christine van Ruymbeke teach Summer School course on the art of the book in Persia and Japan

Jul 31, 2017

Barak Kushner delivers opening remarks at International Symposium

Jul 08, 2017

Krisztina Szilágyi organises an International Medieval Congress at the University of Leeds: Christianity in the Islamic World, I-V.

Jul 05, 2017

Barak Kushner Hosts International Conference: Digital Media and Charting the Geography of Power in East Asia

Jul 05, 2017

Barak Kushner appears in French Documentary Looking at Japanese History and Nationalism

Jul 05, 2017

Amira Bennison to appear at the Cheltenham Science Festival

Jun 04, 2017

Book co-edited by Naures Atto published

May 24, 2017

Cambridge-Paris "Local Primary Sources on Late Imperial China" Workshop website launched

May 24, 2017

PhD student Avital Rom publishes MPhil research in top journal

May 17, 2017

John Nilsson-Wright media discussions on the situation in North Korea

May 10, 2017

Adam Chau presents paper at Fudan University, Shanghai symposium

May 08, 2017

Mao, the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis, and the Middle East: A New Paradigm for Understanding Chinese Foreign Policy

May 05, 2017

Origins of Empires and their Afterlives in East and South Asia

May 04, 2017

Podcast and audio of Laura Moretti book launch

Apr 21, 2017

Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump Have More in Common Than They Think

Apr 20, 2017

Chinese Studies alumna wins prize for best book on Environmental History

Apr 14, 2017

John Nilsson-Wright radio discussion on Sino-Japanese tensions in the East China Sea

Apr 13, 2017

Kim Jong-nam row: Did North Korea come out on top?

Apr 02, 2017

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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. 

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