You are welcome to contact our professors in your field of study if you need assistance with your research proposal or like one of them to act as your supervisor.
RESEARCH FIELDS AND SUPERVISORS
China
Dr. Alison Bailey – Pre-modern Chinese Literature (not accepting MA and PhD students in 2025)
Dr. Kay Duffy – Early and Medieval China (accepting MA students only)
Dr. Aynur Kadir – Ethnic Minorities and Digital Humanities in China
Dr. Christopher Rea – Modern Chinese Literature, Culture and Cinema
Dr. Bruce Rusk – Pre-Modern China
Dr. Leo Shin – History of later imperial China
Dr. Renren Yang – Contemporary Chinese Literature, Media, and Popular Culture (accepting MA students, PhD students only via co-supervision)
Hong Kong
Dr. Leo Shin – History of Hong Kong (Joint appointment with the History Department)
Dr. Helena Wu – Hong Kong Cinema, Literature and Culture
Japan
Dr. Colleen Laird – Japanese Cinema and Popular Culture (not accepting students in 2025)
Dr. Christina Laffin – Classical Japanese
Dr. Hyung Gu Lynn –East Asia, Japan, South Korea, and North Korea – Popular Culture, Media, Migration, Modern and Contemporary History (accepting PhD students)
Dr. Jessica Main – Modern and Contemporary Buddhism (global, open); Modern Japanese Buddhism and Jodo Shinshu; Modern Japanese Religions and New Religious Movements
Dr. Joshua Mostow – Pre-Modern Japanese Literature and Visual Culture
Dr. Fuyubi Nakamura – Anthropology, Contemporary Japanese Calligraphy and Art, Indigenous Cultures, Photography, Visual and Material Cultures
Dr. Peter Nosco – Japanese History and Culture
Dr. Sharalyn Orbaugh – Modern Japanese Literature and Popular Culture (accepting MA students via co-supervision)
Dr. Christina Yi – Modern Japanese Literature (not accepting MA and PhD in 2025W)
Korea
Dr. Ji-yoon An – Korean Cinema and Popular Culture
Dr. Bruce Fulton – Korean Literature and Literary Translation
Dr. Ross King – Korean Language and Literature, especially pre-modern (accepting MA students only)
Dr. Hyung Gu Lynn – East Asia, Japan, South Korea, and North Korea – Popular Culture, Media, Migration, Modern and Contemporary History
Buddhism
Dr. Jinhua Chen – East Asian Buddhism (not accepting graduate students in 2024)
Dr. Jessica Main – Modern and Contemporary Buddhism (global, open); Modern Japanese Buddhism and Jodo Shinshu; Modern Japanese Religions and New Religious Movements.
East Asia
Dr. Nam-lin Hur – International relations in premodern East Asia (15th-19th centuries), Premodern Japanese history (Sengoku and early modern), Korean history (15th-19th centuries, Chosŏn Korea), Japanese Buddhism (early modern), Korean Buddhism (15th century to 1945).
Dr. Ross King – cosmopolitan and vernacular in the Sinographic Cosmopolis/comparative literary culture in the sinographic sphere
Dr. Hyung Gu Lynn – East Asia, Japan, South Korea, and North Korea – Popular Culture, Media, Migration, Modern and Contemporary History
Dr. Fuyubi Nakamura – Anthropology, Contemporary Calligraphy and Art, Indigenous Cultures, Photography
South Asia
Dr. Alexandra Hoffmann – Classical Persian Literature
Dr. Naveena Naqvi – Early Modern and Modern South Asia (accepting MA students only)
Dr. Harjot Oberoi – South Asian Social & Religious History
Dr. Sebastian Prange – South Asian History (accepting MA students only)
Dr. Adheesh Sathaye – Sanskrit Literature and Folklore
Dr. Hasan Siddiqui – Early Modern South Asia
Dr. Kiran Sunar – Literature and Culture in South Asia, Punjab Studies, Diaspora Studies, Gender and Sexuality Studies (accepting MA students via co-supervision)
Dr. Sunera Thobani – South Asian Women’s, Gender, Sexuality Studies
Pan-Asia
Dr. Rumee Ahmed – Islamic Studies
Dr. Aynur Kadir – Digital Humanities, Cultural Heritage and Indigeneity in Asia
Dr. Hyung Gu Lynn – East Asia, Japan, South Korea, and North Korea – Popular Culture, Media, Migration, Modern and Contemporary History
Dr. Fuyubi Nakamura – Anthropology, Art, Visual and Material Cultures, Photography, Indigenous Cultures
Himalayas
Dr. Tsering Shakya – Tibetan Studies
Dr. Pasang Yangjee Sherpa – Human dimensions of climate change, Indigeneity, Himalayas (accepting MA students, PhD students only via co-supervision)
In special cases, PhD degree programs can be arranged jointly between Asian Studies and other departments. For those interested in the Interdisciplinary Program, please contact the Interdisciplinary Studies at http://www.isgp.ubc.ca/
Other UBC Faculty with Interests in Asian Studies:
Those interested in Asia-related modern history, political science, commerce, economics, geography, fine arts, anthropology or sociology, should apply to the department concerned.