Joint Programs

This Program allows students to complement their doctoral studies in East Asian Languages & Civilizations with a program of study in TAPS that reflects their particular training and interests, encompassing both academic and artistic work. Please visit the TAPS graduate program website for additional information on the joint program.

The Program in Cinema and Media Studies and the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations announce the formation of a joint PhD program in East Asian cinema at the University of Chicago. The University has long-standing engagement with both Film and East Asian studies and has already graduated a number of scholars who are changing the field of East Asian cinema around the world. The purpose of this degree program is to provide the best possible training in the methods, languages, and cultural contexts needed to undertake original research on specific topics in East Asian cinema and media studies.

Recent work in the humanities has emphasized the transnational and transregional aspects of fields of study that were previously characterized by a nation's political boundaries. As a medium with a heterogeneous cultural provenance, cinema is a particularly important site of those developments. The field of East Asian cinema and media studies is particularly active in reconsidering both colonial history and the globalized present, from the development of East Asian national cinemas out of the cultural apparatus of colonial rule to the transregional adaptation of film genres, and the significance of low-bandwidth media in generating new forms of consumer culture less readily supervised by the state. The benefits of the joint degree will come from the intellectual linkage of fields that are often kept separate by lack of a shared methodology and tradition of research. Faculty working together on the joint degree will develop shared research programs that will help prepare students to do groundbreaking work and lead the next generation of East Asian film scholars.

Students interested in following this course of study will first apply directly to either the Program in Cinema and Media Studies or to the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations. Students with an area studies background would apply initially to EALC; students with a cinema and media studies background would apply initially to CMS. In their first year students should take foundational courses in the discipline of film studies and, if necessary, training in the language of their intended specialization. Students enter the Joint Program after their first year, conditional on being accepted by a committee made up of faculty members from CMS and EALC. Students who are not admitted to the Joint Program may continue to pursue a PhD in their original Program or Department.

Faculty at the University of Chicago who work with students on topics in East Asian cinema include:

Michael Bourdaghs (East Asian Languages and Civilizations)
Kyeon-hee Choi (East Asian Languages and Civilizations)
Tom Gunning (Cinema and Media Studies)
Hung Wu (Art History)
Paola Iovene (East Asian Languages and Civilizations)
James Ketelaar (History)
Judith Zeitlin (East Asian Languages and Civilizations