GSC 1037:  Graduate School of East Asian Studies (GEAS)

• Subject Area: Social and Cultural Anthropology, Non-European Cultures, Jewish Studies and Religious Studies
• Term: from 2012 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 194523036

The Graduate School of East Asian Studies (GEAS) has three basic goals: First, it combines area studies research on East Asia with thorough, discipline-based methodological training and strong language and cultural competence. Its training programme is interdisciplinary with special emphasis on historically and culturally informed social science inquiry. Second, the Graduate School focusses on East Asia as a region. Our training encourages doctoral candidates to look beyond their country of specialisation - China, Japan or Korea - and to view East Asia-related research in comparative regional and global perspective. Third, our training and research is organised around a central theme, the study of institutions, that we believe offers a wide range of opportunities to study empirically and analyse theoretically the patterns of modernity in East Asia, their commonalities and connectedness as well as their differences from other regions, while at the same time seeking to generate new theory on this empirical base. The research programme is organised in relation to three interconnected lenses: the origins and change of institutions in East Asia, the effects of institutions and the consequences of institutional diversity, and the interdependence of East Asia in the broader regional and global context. The Graduate School brings together principal investigators from East Asian studies with scholars from the social sciences, business and economics, law, anthropology, the humanities and history as well as experts from non-university partner institutions. GEAS builds upon an extensive network of cooperative relationships with the leading universities in East Asia and the core East Asia-related research institutions worldwide as well as with German and East Asian governments and organisations. The doctoral training programme combines discipline-based methods courses, research seminars and summer schools with mandatory periods of fieldwork in East Asia and with the provision of specific area-related transferable skills. Doctoral candidates receive degrees in the department of their discipline under the supervision of a team of three advisors and a faculty mentor in East Asia. To enable candidates to develop careers both in policy-related areas or business as well as in academia, the Graduate School hosts visiting professional fellows as well as visiting scholars.

• DFG Programme: Graduate Schools
• Applicant Institution: Freie Universität Berlin
• Participating Institution: Berlin Graduate School for Global and Transregional Studies (BGTS); Freie Universität Berlin; Deutsche Gesellschaft für Auswärtige Politik e.V.; Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP)
• Spokesperson: Professorin Dr. Verena Blechinger-Talcott
• Deputies: Professorin Dr. Eun-Jeung Lee; Professor Dr. Klaus Mühlhahn
• Participating Researchers: Professorin Dr. Tanja A. Börzel; Professor Dr. Sebastian Conrad; Professor Dr. Hansjörg Dilger; Professorin Dr. Barbara Fritz; Professorin Dr. Bettina Gransow; Professor Dr. Markus Heintzen; Professorin Dr. Irmela Hijiya-Kirschnereit; Professor Dr. Gregory Jackson; Professorin Dr. Doris Kolesch; Professor Dr. Philip Kunig; Professor Dr. Günther Maihold; Professor Dr. Thomas Risse; Professorin Dr. Birgitt Röttger-Rössler; Professor Dr. Eberhard Sandschneider; Professorin Dr. Miranda A. Schreurs; Professor Dr. Jörg Sydow; Dr. Gudrun Wacker