Asian and Middle Eastern Studies

Teaching is through lectures, seminars/classes, and supervisions, and you can typically expect 12-14 hours of teaching each week. Assessment includes written and oral examinations, and coursework.

Depending on your language(s), you take four to six papers in Years 1, 2 and 4, and write a dissertation of 12,000 words in your final year. You spend Year 3 abroad. See the Faculty website for full course details.

If you combine a European language with a Middle Eastern language, you study both roughly equally in Year 1 but after that you can balance them as you wish. If you combine both to Part II, you spend Year 3 in the Middle East.

You receive intensive training in spoken and written Mandarin, as well as a grounding in reading literary and classical Chinese, and Chinese and East Asian history from ancient times to the present day.

In Year 4, you write a dissertation and choose from specialist papers on topics as varied as religion, state and institutions in dynastic China, Chinese linguistics, contemporary society or literature, and war in the making of modern China.

In Year 1, you study East Asian history as well as Japanese. Year 2 primarily focuses on Japan. You can take a compulsory paper in modern Japanese history, and choose several papers from options on classical Japanese, literature, society and politics.

Alongside your dissertation in Year 4, you choose from special papers which vary each year. Past topics include Japanese culture, history, advanced classical Japanese, and politics. There’s also a Korean language option.

You study written and spoken Arabic, and/or modern Persian, and an introduction to the contemporary Middle East and/or its history. In Year 2, you can study classical and modern literature, history, anthropology and/or Islam.

In Year 4, you write a dissertation and the second-year subjects are offered again, but in more depth and specialisation (eg modern Islamist thought, Islamic Spain, travel writing).

You’re introduced to the Hebrew language and its literature, as well as the contemporary culture of Israel and the history and culture of the Middle East. You can also take other subjects such as linguistics, Judaism, Akkadian or Egyptian.

In Year 4, in addition to your dissertation, you have a range of options to choose from, such as Hebrew literature, Israeli cultural studies, Israeli cinema, comparative Semitics, Aramaic, Phoenician, Ugaritic and the pre-modern and modern Middle East.

For further information about studying Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Cambridge see the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies website.