Fields of Study: East and Central Asia

Georgetown's graduate program in Asian history offers students the chance to study the history of China, Japan and / or Central Asia with internationally known specialists, while taking advantage of the diverse opportunities and rich research collections of the Washington D.C. area (including the National Archives, Library of Congress and Smithsonian Institution). Faculty interests cover the social, cultural, political and diplomatic history of early modern through twentieth-century China and Japan, with particular specialties in history of medicine, Christianity in Asia, US-East Asian relations, Chinese Inner Asia (Tibet, Xinjiang, Mongolia and Manchuria). Students may also work with faculty outside the Asian subfield on subjects that cross geographic or thematic boundaries, such as environmental history, Sino-Russian relations, Islam or Central Asia. We encourage all candidates for the Ph.D. in Asian history to think comparatively and to develop competence in teaching world history as well as that of their own Asian regional specialty—something increasingly important in today's job market.

Those applying for the Ph.D. program in Asian history at Georgetown should be able to conduct research in one relevant Asian language at the time of application; facility in an appropriate second non-English language will be required for completion of the degree. Students from non-English-speaking countries are encouraged to seek admission, but must demonstrate strong spoken and written English through official GRE and TOEFL reports, writing samples, and any other evidence they can provide.

For more information, please feel free to contact Professor James Millward (faculty representative to the Graduate Studies Committee). Additionally, you may wish to contact or any of the faculty members listed below with interests relevant to yours. Besides answering questions about the graduate program, they can put you in contact with past and present graduate students.

Faculty:

BENEDICT, Carol Ann (PhD, Stanford 1992; assoc. prof.)
China, Chinese medicine

KIM, Christine (PhD, Harvard 2004; asst. prof.)
Modern Korea, empire studies, East Asian history

MILLWARD, James (PhD, Stanford 1993; assoc. prof.)
Intersocietal history; late Imperial China; Central and Inner Asia; Xinjiang, Mongolia, Tibet; frontiers; ethnicity

SAND, Jordan (PhD, Columbia 1996; assoc. prof. and faculty, East Asian Languages)
Modern Japan, social reform, domesticity

SPENDELOW, Howard (PhD, Harvard 1982; assoc. prof.)
China, East Asia

TUCKER, Nancy Bernkopf (PhD, Columbia 1980; prof.)
U.S. diplomatic, U.S.-East Asian relations, East Asia

WITEK, John W., S.J. (PhD, Georgetown 1973; prof.)
East Asia, China, Japan


The following current students, listed with their chosen fields and specializations, have also agreed to serve as contacts and will be glad to answer any questions you may have.

Ma, Haiyun

Research: Chinese Central Asia
Dissertation: "New Territory and New Teaching: Law, Religion, and Ethnicnity in Eighteenth Century NW China"
Minor: Islamic history
Collateral: Anthropology

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