Welcome to the Harvard University Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations! Our department is devoted to the study of the cultures and societies of East Asia in their historical development from past to present. Research by our faculty focuses on language and literature, philosophy and religion, social organization and the arts of China, Japan, Korea, and Central Asia. The languages taught by our department include Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Manchu, Mongolian, Uyghur and Vietnamese.

The department administers the interdepart-mental and interdisciplinary Concentration in East Asian Studies, which provides students with a general introduction to the extraordinary civilizations of East Asia as a background to more specialized work on the area, period, and discipline of the student's choice. We are particularly proud of the close student-faculty interaction we are able to maintain. Alongside the Concentration in East Asian Studies we also offer a Secondary Field in East Asian Studies for students with a different major who wish to explore one or more aspects of East Asia. Harvard encourages students to gain an international perspective in the course of their studies, and many of our faculty are actively involved in study abroad programs in China, Korea and Japan.  Various grants are available to those who decide to take advantage of these invaluable opportunities for academic enrichment.

Our graduate program is highly regarded. First-rate faculty, often the leading scholars in their field, are dedicated to providing specialized training in the study of East Asian materials as well as a broad education in the diverse methods and approaches that can be used to understand these materials. We are also very proud of our excellent job placement record for graduates.

Teaching and research are supported by a highly professional administrative staff, whose members are most efficient and helpful.

The department is but one small part of the much larger community of East Asia scholarship at Harvard University. The Harvard-Yenching Library offers one of the best collections of East Asian books and journals in the world, and provides access to an amazing range of digital resources. The Asia Center, the China Fund, the John K. Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, the Reischauer Institute for Japanese Studies, and the Korea Institute stimulate collaborative research campus-wide and support East Asia related student activities; they also host visiting scholars and provide fellowships for postdoctoral research. The Harvard-Yenching Institute each year brings in leading scholars from East Asia for study and collaborative research, and offers a wide range of scholarships. Together these centers organize and support a truly remarkable number of speaker series, workshops, conferences, performances and other events, which all help to make Harvard one of the most stimulating places in the world to study East Asia.