Asian Studies (Research) (Master 2012-2013) - Prospectus

First year

Course	EC	Semester 1	Semester 2
Common Core Course Besides the “Theory and Methods” course students are strongly advised to attend the Thesis Writing Seminar, which is obligatory in the second year only.
Semester 1 (Fall semester)
Theory and Methods in Area Studies	10
Specialisation courses Students choose two or more specialisation courses up to a minimum of 20 EC from the list.
Semester 2 (Spring semester)
Common Core Course: students choose one of the two following courses: Besides the CCC of their choice students are strongly advised to attend the Thesis Writing Seminar, which is obligatory in the second year only. Students may opt to take both courses. One of them will then be counted as a specialisation course.
Arts and Culture in Area Studies: Culture and Conquest: the impact of the Mongols and their descendants	10
State and Society: Orientalism, Colonialism, and Post-Colonialism	10
Specialisation courses Students choose two or more specialisation courses up to a minimum of 20 EC from the list.

Second year

After the completion of their first year students may opt to spend the summer or a complete semester (semester 3) to study abroad at one of the institutions affiliated with the programme or to do fieldwork. Students who want to go abroad need to contact a potential supervisor of their project early in the second semester (of the first year) to write a sound proposal. This proposal needs to be submitted to the Board of Examiners for approval at least two months before the student leaves (preferably before the end of the second semester).

Students who are staying in Leiden are obliged to take the Thesis Writing Seminar and choose two (or more) courses from the list of specialisation courses.

Course	EC	Semester 1	Semester 2
Semester 1 (Fall semester)
Common Core Course
Thesis Writing Seminar (Area Studies, Asian Studies and Middle Eastern Studies (research))	10
Specialisation courses Students choose two or more specialisation courses up to a minimum of 20 EC from the list.
Semester 2 (Spring semester)
Common Core Courses
Thesis Writing Seminar (Area Studies, Asian Studies and Middle Eastern Studies (research))	10
Research MA Thesis (Area Studies, Middle Eastern Studies, Asian Studies)	30

Specialisation courses

The courses listed are, in principle, open to all students admitted to the MA Asian Studies (research). However, some of them may have additional entry requirements such as, for example, a particular level of language sufficiency. Please, see the course descriptions for further details.

Course	EC	Semester 1	Semester 2
Semester 1 (Fall semester)
Specialisation courses offered by the Research Master
Oral Traditions	10
Specialisation courses offered by other MA programmes.
Anthropology of Muslim Societies	10
Beginners level language: Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Hindi, Indonesian, Russian, Tibetan, Turkish, Persian, Arabic	10
Buddhist sacred texts: Buddhism and psychology, advanced course	10
Chinese Linguistics	10
Chinese Art History	10
Economic Development and Social Change in Southeast Asia	10
Forgery as Historiography in Korean and East Asian History	10
Hindi Literature	10
Histories of Southeast Asia	5
History, Theory, Nation: Readings from the South	10
Indonesian Language 1	10
Language Training: Advanced readings in Premodern Chinese	5
Multiple Histories of Early Modern Japan	10
Nation, State and Security in Post-war Japanese Political Thought	10
The persecution of witches in premodern Asia	10
The politics of culture in Southeast Asia	5.0/10.0
Sharing the Tales of Buddha: Narrative Art in Asia	10
Sociology of Japan	10
Using Language in context: Narrative and Interaction	10
Writing Histories: Modern Japan, Asia, and the World	10
Semester 2 (Spring semester)
Specialisation courses offered by the Research Master.
Pilgrimages and Holy Places	10
Specialisation courses offered by other MA programmes.
Areas and policies	10
Asia through consumption	10
Beginners level language 2: Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Hindi, Indonesian, Russian, Tibetan, Sanskrit, Turkish, Persian, Arabic	5
Eurasian Studies	10
Hands-on Research Experience in Museum Volkenkunde	10
History and Heritage in South Asia	10
Image/Text in Pre-modern Japan	10
Life and Work in Contemporary China	10
New Diversities in Asia	10
Persian Literature outside Iran: A Literary History	10
Practicing Modernity:State and Society in Soviet and post-Soviet Central Asia and the Caucasus	10
Topical Readings in Korean	10
Topical Readings in Chinese (texts on premodern China)	10
Topics in Chinese linguistics	10
Topics in South and Southeast Asian Art History	5.0/10.0
`Ulamâ’ in the Modern Muslim World	10