Welcome from the Chair
Welcome to the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures!
The peoples of East Asia comprise one-quarter of the population, production, and consumption in today’s ever-changing world. Knowledge of the diverse languages and cultures of East Asia is vital to developing an understanding of our global community.
The Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures is dedicated to providing rigorous language training in Chinese and Japanese, as well as courses in English on Chinese and Japanese literature and culture.
A major in Chinese or Japanese provides excellent preparation for a wide variety of post-graduate opportunities. Proficiency in East Asian languages and an understanding of East Asian culture are highly coveted in business and government careers. Our recent graduates have undertaken post-graduate careers in everything from Asian Studies, law, business, and medicine to service work and the priesthood.
The highly-trained and diverse faculty of East Asian Languages and Cultures constitute a cohort of mid-career and young men and women with degrees from places such as Harvard, Columbia, and Indiana Universities as well as the University of California, Berkeley, who work on topics that include literature, film, popular culture, religion, philosophy, and history.
Our language professors come from mainland China, Taiwan, and Japan and are thus totally conversant with the cultures and everyday lives of the peoples whose languages they teach. For more information about their interests and scholarship, you can access faculty biographies from our Faculty and Staff page.
I hope you have found the information on this page helpful. If you have questions about the Department or its activities, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Dian Murray
Chair of the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures
