POSTGRADUATE PROSPECTUS

86DEPARTMENT OFJAPAN AND KOREANUMBER OF STAFF 13RAE 5DEPARTMENT WEBSITEwww.soas.ac.uk/japanandkoreaFACULTY Languages and CulturesJAPAN AND KOREAThe Department is part of the Faculty of Languages andCultures and covers through teaching and research abroad range of studies relating to Japan and Korea.Japan and Korea have been greatly influencedby the social, religious, and cultural practicesof China. The Chinese writing system has beenparticularly important. However, both Japanand Korea have gone on to develop their owndistinctive and rich cultural traditions.More than 100 students are registered with theDepartment at any one time, and up to a quarterof those are postgraduates working on taught orresearch degrees. Though most students comefrom Britain and the EU, a significant number arefrom other countries, including Japan, Korea andthe United States.After graduating, our students go on to takeadvantage of a wide range of work opportunities;from academic positions, museums, art galleries,charities, aid agencies to employment in a varietyof international businesses where they are ableto make full use of the cultural background andlanguage they have acquired at SOAS.Many of the taught courses require students togain knowledge of a target language, and this skilldeepens the ability of students to come to a greaterunderstanding of the cultures they study.RESEARCH DEGREESThe Department is able to supervise MPhil andPhD degrees by research and thesis in a widerange of cultural and linguistic subjects. Intendingresearch students should not feel constrainedto limit their choice of topics to those indicatedagainst the names of current staff members(postgraduate students have recently been workingon a range of topics that include Japanese cinema,Kabuki texts, modern Japanese linguistics andliterature, Meiji historical texts, Korean linguisticsand literature, Korean colonial and eighteenthcenturyhistory). Research undertaken at MPhiland PhD level is based on literary, documentary,and archive material available at SOAS and alsogathered during fieldwork in Japan and Korea.TAUGHT MASTERS DEGREESMA APPLIED JAPANESELINGUISTICSMA EAST ASIAN LITERATURE– SEE PAGE 61MA JAPANESE LITERATUREMA KOREAN LITERATUREINTERDISCIPLINARYMA JAPANESE STUDIES– SEE PAGE 151MA KOREAN STUDIES– SEE PAGE 153MA TAIWAN STUDIES– SEE PAGE 160MA ANTHROPOLOGY OF MEDIA– SEE PAGE 47MA COMPARATIVE LITERATURE(AFRICA/ASIA) – SEE PAGE 146ACADEMIC STAFF AND THEIR RESEARCH AREASDr John L Breen MA PHD(CANTAB)Modern Japanese language; Japanese history, withspecial reference to 19th century political, socialand intellectual history; Japanese religions in thepre-modern and modern erasDr Stephen H Dodd BA(OXON) MA PHD(COLUMBIA)Admissions Tutor – JapaneseModern Japanese literature, with particular interestin representations of the native place (furusato),gender/sexuality and modernityProfessor Andrew Gerstle BA(COLUMBIA) MA(WASEDA)PHD(HARVARD)Japanese literature, drama and thought, primarily of theTokugawa period, with particular interest in Bunrakuand Kabuki theatre and the plays of ChikamatsuDr Anders Karlsson MA PHD(STOCKHOLM)Postgraduate Tutor / Admissions Tutor – KoreanKorean language; literature and society; history of 19thcentury KoreaMs Misako Kanehisa BED(EHIME) MA(LEEDS)Lector in JapaneseMs Miwako Kashiwagi BA(OSAKA) MA(INDIANA)Lector in JapaneseDr Griseldis Kirsch PHD(MICHIGAN)Lecturer in Contemporary Japanese CultureDr Mika Kizu BA(NANZAN) MA(CALIFORNIA) PHD(MCGILL)Theoretical linguistics; Syntax; Japanese linguistics;Second Language Acquisition