Faculty of Arts & Sciences

Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University (top)
For over a century, Arboretum staff have explored and documented the natural and cultural resources of Asia. The South Central China and Tibet Expedition site provides access to the natural history and ethnographic collections that resulted from these expeditions and are now held at Harvard University Herbaria, Museums, Libraries, and Archives. The digital format links these various repositories allowing students and scholars to move through time and within collections, accessing material that not only depicts the area's natural and ecological resources, but also documents the social and cultural history of China and Tibet.

Biodiversity of the Hengduan Mountains Project (top)
This project proposes to inventory plant and fungal diversity in western Sichuan and eastern Xizang (Tibet), China. Because the regions is a hot spot for diversity, this project intends to set the stage for more detailed analyses of biogeographic patterns and processes of diversification in the region, as well as conservation efforts focused on areas of highest diversity.

China Historical Graphical Information System Project (top)
The China Historical Geographic Information System, CHGIS, project was launched in January 2001 to establish a database of populated places and historical administrative units for the period of Chinese history between 222 BCE and 1911 CE. CHGIS provides a base GIS platform for researchers to use in spatial analysis, temporal statistical modeling, and representation of selected historical units as digital maps.

Chinese Linguistic Page (top)
The Chinese Linguistics Page provides anyone who is interested in this unique language with an unofficial place to exchange and disseminate linguistic information via the internet.

East Asian Studies Concentration (top)
East Asian Studies at Harvard is dedicated to the study of East Asia, both as a vital part of the world today and as one of the great civilizations of human history. To study East Asia is to be exposed to a world with different forms of political activity and social relations, religious traditions of great depth and philosophical schools with enduring insights, and literatures of unusual range and power. It is also to study a world that since the 19th century has come to share in the dilemmas of modernity that challenge us all.

Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies (top)
The Fairbank Center sponsors nine ongoing seminars on themes ranging from East Asian art history to Chinese current events, and organizes research projects and major international conferences on a wide variety of scholarly topics. It also provides a forum for regular dialogue between the academic and policy communities in China and the United States. It further supports research by offering hospitality to visiting scholars from all over the world, by awarding a limited but increasing number of postdoctoral fellowships, and by maintaining its own specialized library.

Fine Arts Library (top)
The Rübel Asiatic Research Collection (RARC) at the Fine Arts Library ranks as one of the leading collections for the study of Asian art and archaeology in the nation. The collection is especially strong in the history of Chinese ritual bronzes, Buddhist arts, Chinese painting, and East Asian ceramics. Three-quarters of the collection is in Chinese.

Harvard China Review
The Harvard China Review is student-run organization registered at Harvard University Faculty of Arts and Sciences. HCR's goal is to comprehensively and objectively offer a program and forum of exchange to facilitate discussions about the continuous transformation currently occurring in Greater China Region. HCR draws attention to enhance understanding, cooperation and renovation between Greater China and the rest of the world.

Harvard Chinese Students and Scholars Association (top)
The HCSSA is dedicated to the goal of promoting social, intellectual, and cultural activities of Chinese students and scholars at Harvard and for other interested members in the Harvard community. It will facilitate communication among its members and act as a liaison between itself and other organizations on campus. The group will also work to facilitate the exchange of information between China and the United States. Its activities will include, but not be limited to sponsoring and co-sponsoring social, intellectual, and cultural events, films, and seminars.

Harvard University Center for the Environment (top)
The Center for the Environment's China Project is a multidisciplinary research program on energy use and environment in China and in Sino-American relations. The program explores integrated policy responses to local air pollution problems of immediate concern in China and to greenhouse gas emissions by the world's two leading national sources, the U.S. and China.

Harvard University Asia Center (top)
The Harvard University Asia Center supplements other Asia-related programs and institutes at the University and provides a focal point for interaction and exchange on topics of common interest for the Harvard community and Asian intellectual, political, and business circles. The Center also fosters links between programs concerned with Asia at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and other faculties at Harvard, and facilitates cross-regional research and cooperative efforts between the University's libraries, museums, and regional centers and institutes.
Resources at the Asia Center include the Harvard Asia Bulletin, an online resource that lists many upcoming Asia-related events at Harvard (all of which are open to the public), and the Harvard Asia Newsletter, a quarterly newsletter with future and past lecture summaries, student events and grants news, interviews with Asia Center fellows, and other Asia-related news items at the University.

Harvard University Herbaria (top)
The Flora of China Project at the Harvard University Herbaria intends to describe and otherwise document the 31,000 (or one-eighth of the world's total) species of flora in China. The Flora of China is a new work, being an English-language revision of the Flora Republicae Popularis Sinicae (FRPS), with taxonomy reflecting the current understanding of each group.

Harvard University Museums (top)
The Arthur M. Sackler Museum has one of the finest collections of asian art in the country. In addition to Chinese gallery rotations, has the following on permanent display: 140+ Ancient Chinese Jades and Ritual Bronzes; 4 Mural Fragments and 1 Sculpture from the Buddhist Caves at Dunhuang, Gansu province, China; 30 Chinese Buddhist Sculpture and Cave-Temple Reliefs; 16 Chinese Gilt-Bronze Buddhist Sculptures; and 300+ Early Chinese ceramics.

Harvard-Yenching Institute (top)
The Harvard-Yenching Institute supports East Asian studies at Harvard through contributions to the Harvard-Yenching Library. The Institute publishes the Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies (founded in 1936) and books on East Asian literature and history in the Harvard-Yenching Institute Monograph Series published by Harvard's Asia Center. Since the 1950s, the Institute has offered over 700 fellowships for overseas study and research to younger scholars on the faculties of leading East and Southeast Asian universities in all fields of the humanities and social sciences.

Harvard-Yenching Library (top)
The Chinese Collection of the Harvard-Yenching Library is devoted to Chinese-language research materials in all formats, but mainly in the fields of humanities and social sciences. With works published in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and other areas, the Chinese Collection of the Harvard-Yenching Library plays an important role in supporting all China-related teaching and research activities at Harvard.

Office of International Programs (top)
Since its creation in 2002, the Office for International Programs has greatly enhanced
study abroad opportunities for undergraduates and, in doing so, helped Harvard College students gain a greater understanding of the wider world. For East Asian Concentrators, there are many programs through which College students can study abroad in China.

Harvard College

Harvard Asia Pacific Review (top)
The Harvard Asia Pacific Review is a semi-annual academic journal devoted to capturing the vital pulse of the Asia Pacific Region. It brings together a multitude of perspectives on recent events and trends, attracting world leaders, renowned scholars, and leading professional worldwide as contributors.

Harvard China Care (top)
Every other week, members of Harvard China Care (HCC) plan Asian-inspired activities for "Dumplings," a playgroup of adopted children from China. The student group is a chapter of China Care, a nonprofit organization founded by Matt R. Dalio '06, when he was only 16. Since then, his program has garnered national attention, including an appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show.

Harvard College in Asia Project (top)
HCAP sponsors alternative spring break experiences with partner universities in locations including Beijing with comprehensive eight-to-nine day itineraries which include conferences, academics, cultural and social activities. Examples include: meeting with the Beijing Olympic Committee, a discussion with the CEO of China’s largest newspaper, and lessons in the art of calligraphy.

Harvard East Asia Society (top)
The Harvard East Asia Society is dedicated to promoting the study of East Asia within the Harvard community and specifically among graduate students. While HEAS is organized by students in the Regional Studies East Asia program, it is open to all those with an interest in East Asian cultures, history, and society.

Harvard-Radcliffe Asian American Association (top)
AAA strives to unite Asian American Students at Harvard and raise greater awareness of Asian American issues through social, cultural, and political events.

Graduate School of Arts & Sciences

[blurb from dean's office or other informant]

Graduate Degree Programs in the Study of East Asia (top)
Graduate students may pursue programs leading to higher degrees in several different subjects relating, directly or indirectly, to East Asia. Students may receive higher degrees in such subjects as anthropology, comparative literature, economics, history of art and architecture, linguistics, music, political science, and sociology, in any of which the student may emphasize work on East Asian material.

Division of Continuing Education

The Harvard Division of Continuing Education is pleased to offer its diverse student population many opportunities to study Chinese language, culture, and history both on-campus and abroad. Harvard Extension School and Harvard Summer School Chinese courses and programs allow students to prepare for travel, work, or further education while studying with distinguished Harvard faculty in either part-time or intensive formats. Through distance education, some of these courses are also available online to students around the world. Additionally, each year hundreds of residents of China experience a Harvard education by registering for open enrollment courses offered by the Harvard Extension and Summer Schools, available in a variety of subjects, both online and on-campus.

Harvard Extension School (top)
The Harvard Extension School offers courses at different levels in modern Chinese language during its fall and spring terms on an open-enrollment, part-time basis, in the evenings, on the Harvard campus. Related courses in history, which are recorded lectures from the Harvard College curriculum, are also offered exclusively online.

Harvard Summer School (top)
On-campus, the Harvard Summer School offers open enrollment courses at various levels in modern Chinese language, as well as related courses in economics and history. Harvard's Summer Study Abroad Programs are the result of a partnership between the Summer School and the Office of International Programs, with the belief that a period of time spent studying abroad enriches a student's educational experience in many ways, and that all students can benefit from developing their knowledge of the world and of cultural differences as part of their education. The Harvard Summer Program in Beijing, China gives students studying Chinese the opportunity to explore this richly historic city, while participating in intensive language instruction. The program offers four intensive courses in modern Chinese at the intermediate and advanced levels, as well as a one-week social study project. The language training is embedded in the Chinese setting, with speakers from many sectors of Chinese society joining the participants to discuss their lives.