Reminder: Graduate Applications for Fall 2026 Due December 1
This is a friendly reminder that the Department of Asian Languages and Civilizations at CU Boulder is accepting applications for our graduate programs (MA and PhD Programs in Chinese and Japanese) and graduate applications for fall admission are due on December 1, 2025. Please share the below information with your students and direct any questions to dalc@colorado.edu.
Celebrating a history of over 30 years, the Department of Asian Languages and Civilizations offers small class sizes that allow our graduate students the opportunity to work closely with faculty who are noted scholars in their fields. Faculty research includes various specialized topics in Chinese and Japanese literature and cultural history, from early times to the present day, in fields such as poetry, literary criticism, manuscript studies, religious and intellectual history, as well as fiction, drama, film, and other forms of visual culture. The program also welcomes students who are interested in transcultural/transnational studies within the department.
Generous funding opportunities for our MA candidates include fellowships, tuition waiver, health insurance assistance and stipends for Teaching Assistantships (TAs). Additionally, our graduate programs are the part of the Western Regional Graduate Program, which allows students who are residents of 15 participating states to enroll in certain distinctive programs at public institutions on an in-state resident tuition basis.
The MA program in Chinese is designed to offer students maximum general exposure to the long sweep of Chinese literary and cultural history as well as the opportunity to delve into the study of some particular period, field, topic or genre. With four professors covering literature and culture from early China through the medieval era to the early modern period and contemporary China, the program is comprehensive in scope. The program focuses especially on preparing students for PhD study and careers in sinology. Since 1991, more than eighty graduates of the Chinese MA program have gone on to doctoral study here or at other first-rank institutions in the U.S. For alumni stories, please click here.
If you have questions about the Chinese graduate programs, please contact the Graduate Director.
The MA program in Japanese offers students the opportunity to engage in advanced-level study of Japanese literature and culture, with the aim of preparing students for doctoral study in Japanese literature as well as providing firm foundational knowledge for those seeking Japan-related professional careers. The program is composed of four professors with specializations in the literatures of classical, medieval, early modern, and modern Japan. Recent graduates have gone on to doctoral study in Japanese literature, religion, history, and art history at institutions such as Harvard, Yale, UCLA, UC Berkeley, the University of Michigan, the University of Wisconsin, and CU Boulder. They have also pursued careers in business, translation, secondary and post-secondary education; in governmental and non-governmental organizations; and in a variety of other institutions in both the public and private sectors of the United States and Japan. See our alumni stories here.
The PhD programs in Chinese and Japanese offer extensive training in the modern and pre-modern literatures of China and Japan for students seeking to pursue research and teaching careers at the collegiate level. The department will offer five-year PhD fellowships, which will include a tuition waiver and competitive monthly stipend.
For more information about our graduate programs, funding and how to apply, please visit our website. We would be delighted to receive your application and look forward to welcoming you to our program.
The Faculty & Staff of the Department of Asian Languages and Civilizations