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The Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies specializes in “Area Studies”. We spearhead the mission to Globalize the Humanities, working across disciplines in a wide range of East Asian and Middle Eastern languages.
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To get to know us more, please keep reading.
We are Area Studies: what does it mean?
Three tenets are at the core of our academic mission.
(1) A multidisciplinary focus.
We are experts of a specific culture and/or region across disciplines. Collectively the scholars affiliated to our Faculty have impressive research expertise that encompasses many academic fields including history, literature, social anthropology, linguistics, book history, visual culture, material culture, and international politics.
In other words, we are an inherently and resolutely multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary Faculty.
(2) Use of regional languages.
Our scholars work with a wide range of primary and secondary sources written in the language(s) of the cultures and the regions that we study. This ensures that our research is never one-sided but gives equal voice to a multitude of perspectives.
(3) Globalizing the Humanities.
We are committed to Globalize the Humanities by ensuring that our research brings to the fore disciplinary aspects that would be otherwise muted when research is done on Western materials alone or by reading only, or primarily, in Western languages.
These three tenets set us apart from other academic units within the University.
Our teaching is informed by our academic mission
Our Faculty is the only place in the University where undergraduate students learn complex languages such as Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Hebrew, and Persian. They start from scratch and become fluent in just four years.
Our Faculty is the only place in the University where our postgraduate students are trained in working rigorously with the primary sources in East Asian and Middle Eastern languages and in the necessary critical skills to interpret them.
Together these languages amount to the native languages of nearly two billion people in the world. Language is an essential pillar for understanding these regions. But competence in mastering a language is reached only with cultural, historical, literary, social and political understanding of the region.
Why does this matter?
Imagine that you are tasked to write about a specific historical event that happened in one of the regions that we deal with. How can you write about it without the ability to critically engage with sources from the archives, written in the original language(s)? How can you write about it if you cannot engage with the people, including scholars, in the region?
Imagine that you are tasked to engage with a literary text. How can you do it justice if you only access it in English-language translation, where a translator has already made a number of interpretative choices? How can you bring a fresh perspective if you are not on top of all the scholarship produced on it, including that in the target language?
Imagine that you are asked to make sense of a piece of art. How can you fully unlock its meanings if you are not familiar with the complex social, historical, and literary scaffolding that surrounds or inhabits it?
We are passionate in asserting the importance of studying history, literature, social anthropology, linguistics, book history, visual culture, material culture, and international politics from the ideal vantage point that only our Faculty can offer: our 360-degree study of a culture using its own language(s) is what makes the difference.
How can you make the difference?
We need your help to ensure that our academic mission continues to thrive for the benefit of the next generations.
Your support can be channelled to our students, supporting their studies with us.
It can also be channelled into the strengthening, growth, and expansion of our interdisciplinary expertise by helping endow existing posts or create new ones.
