East Asian Studies at Harvard is dedicated to the study of East Asia, both as a vital part of the world today and as one of the great civilizations of human history. To study East Asia is to be exposed to a world with different forms of political activity and social relations, religious traditions of great depth and philosophical schools with enduring insights, and literatures of unusual range and power. It is also to study a world that since the 19th century has come to share in the dilemmas of modernity that we all confront. For some this inquiry provides a challenging and satisfying addition to a liberal arts education. For some it is an opportunity to restore connections to an ancestral past. For others it leads to graduate studies. And for many others it is the beginning of a professional career with an East Asian component.

East Asian Studies is offered as both a concentration and a secondary field.