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Introduction The Committee supervises the work of graduate students whose interest in Inner Asia is not confined to languages or history alone, but encompasses linguistics, history, religion, art history, and general cultural study. Courses relating to Inner Asian studies are given by members of the committee and other faculty in the departments of Anthropology, East Asian Languages and Civilizations, History, History of Art and Architecture, Linguistics, Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, and Sanskrit and Indian Studies, and by the Committee on the Study of Religion. Interested students should consult these sections of Harvard University's Courses of Instruction.

History of IAAS Inner Asian and Altaic Studies deal with the history and cultures of the peoples in the steppe, mountain, forest, and oasis areas between China, Russia, western Iran, and Pakistan. This geographic area comprises Central Asia (namely former Soviet Central Asia, Xinjiang, eastern Iran, and Afghanistan), Kazakhstan, the northern regions of Pakistan, Tibet (including Qinghai and eastern Sichuan, Gansu, and northwestern Yunnan), Mongolia, and Manchuria. The Altaic languages include the Turkic group, the Mongolian group, and the Tungusic group.

The Committee on Inner Asian and Altaic Studies was established in the fall of 1972 for the purpose of stimulating and integrating instruction and research in these areas.

Harvard is pre-eminent among the very few universities where Inner Asian and Altaic studies may be pursued. Harvard's library holdings in East European, East Asian, Islamic, and South Asian areas led to a development of strength in the Inner Asian and Altaic fields prior to the actual establishment of this program. The research centers and degree programs that exist at Harvard on the four sides of the Inner Asian area have contributed much material directly relevant to the study of this region. Harvard possesses outstanding collections in the Chinese, Iranian, Turkish, Arabic, Indian, and Russian languages which comprise the most important primary sources for the study of this area, as well as in Manchu, Mongolian, and Tibetan. These collections are variously held by the Widener, Harvard-Yenching, Houghton, Dumbarton Oaks, Gibb, Tozzer, and Fine Arts libraries. The East Asian Research Center, the Jewett Collection, and Harvard's microfilm collections also contain important source material in this field.

The Ph.D. program in Inner Asian and Altaic Studies is modeled on similar joint degree programs for adjacent areas, in particular the Ph.D. programs in History and East Asian Languages and in History and Middle Eastern Studies. Like these, the Ph.D. program in Inner Asian and Altaic Studies is not training in area studies as such but rather a program in an established discipline (for example, anthropology, art and architecture, history, linguistics, literature, or religious studies) in the context of Inner Asia and/or the Altaic languages. The program includes a language requirement and a general examination in three fields, and is restricted to candidates for the Ph.D. degree. It does not offer an AM degree.

For more details, please also refer to the IAAS program page at Harvard's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

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EVENTS:

Lunchtime Lecture Series

The Joseph Fletcher Memorial Lecture

The Richard N. Frye Fund Lecture

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