Big Asia: The University of California Faculty Initiative for Multi-campus Graduate Training in East Asian Studies

Minghui Hu
History
UC Santa Cruz

This multi-campus graduate training initiative intends to add a new dimension to East Asian Studies in the UC system, based on the premise that contemporary graduate training in East Asian Studies should engage with multiple geographic and temporal scales rather than remaining conceptually bound to the space and time of the modern nation-state. Our long-term plan is to build a multi-campus degree-granting program over nine years in three stages. Our “Big Asia” training platform will highlight intra-Asian connections and changes in both short and long temporal scales, explore Asian reality with innovative analytical vocabulary, and create models for scholarship and teaching that will change how we approach the past.