Department Homepage
The College of Arts & Sciences
The department is the home for instruction in the languages, literatures, religions, cultures, and intellectual histories of Asian societies and is one of the few departments in America that offers instruction in social sciences, the humanities and languages across all three regions of Asia: East Asia (China, Japan and Korea), Southeast Asia (Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, The Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore), and South Asia (India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh). The Department is committed to the examination of social, political, and cultural formations that transcend traditional national and areal boundaries.
Chao Yuen-Ren 1914, composer of the first Chinese keyboard music, was also a ground-breaking linguist who transformed the Chinese language through his scholarship on Chinese grammar and phonology.
Read more
Voters in more than 60 countries are heading to the polls to elect new leaders in this record-breaking “super election” year. In many of those countries, democracy itself is on the ballot.
Read more
“We felt this is an important resource that should be available to our humanists at all levels, whether they have the resources to pay for membership or not,” said Peter John Loewen, the Harold Tanner Dean of Arts and Sciences.
Read more
Scholar Daniel Bass comments on this week's presidential election in Sri Lanka, the first since a 2022 economic meltdown that forced the resignation of Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
Read more
Cornell, the only institution offering regular multilevel instruction in all six of the major Southeast Asian languages – Burmese, Indonesian, Khmer, Filipino (Tagalog), Thai and Vietnamese – will host a conference on the teaching of these languages on Sept. 19-21.
Read more
"Cornell alumni are generous with their time and efforts to assist students, to answer questions from students, or connect them to people and places."
Read more
Cornell’s graduate students may be based in Ithaca, but every summer they make discoveries in unique study sites around the globe. Asian literature, religion and culture Ph.D. student Yuanxue Jing did research at the Youyan Archives in Beijing.
Read more
Peter John Loewen says he's excited to support faculty in their research, meet students and showcase the value of a liberal arts education.
Read more
Check out our new courses for Spring 2025!
Applications now being accepted for Chinese Language Lecturer/Senior Lecturer. Application deadline is October 18, 2024.
Applications now being accepted for tenure-track faculty position in Tamil Studies in Transregional Perspective. Application deadline is November 1, 2024.
Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship in Asian Studies for 2025-2027 now available. Applications are being accepted, deadline for applications is November 15, 2024.
Department of Asian Studies Mission Statement