Underwood International College

In their first year, students take Introduction to Asian Studies, which is a gateway course for the major. Starting from their second year and building on the Common Curriculum’s focus on critical thinking, writing, and reading, the Asian Studies (ASD) majors take four courses in the ASD Literature-History-Philosophy series taught by core ASD faculty and nine major electives taught by select university faculty. After the second year, students are encouraged to study abroad for at least one semester at a university with an Asian Studies program. All students must complete two semesters of language study: native and heritage speakers of Korean study either Chinese or Japanese while non-heritage students study Korean. In the fourth year, in a Research Seminar taught by ASD core faculty, students may elect to cap their studies by writing a full length research paper on a topic of their choice.