The doctoral programme

The GEAS doctoral programme is a structured, interdisciplinary PhD in East Asian and area studies, based on the study of contemporary and modern East Asia — China, Japan and Korea — in its wider global context. Doctoral candidates receive their degree in the department of their discipline, under the supervision of a team of three advisors and a faculty mentor in East Asia.

GEAS brings together Principal Investigators from East Asian Studies with scholars from the social sciences, business and economics, law, the humanities, history and anthropology, as well as experts from non-university partner institutions. The programme combines discipline-based methods courses, research seminars and a two-week Summer School, and includes a mandatory phase of at least six months of original research at a partner university in East Asia. It is governed by the GEAS Doctoral Regulations. See how it is organised in Structure and Curriculum, and our guidance on Research ethics and fieldwork preparation.

Candidates draw on the Dahlem Research School and the Berlin University Alliance at Freie Universität Berlin, and on GEAS’s extensive network of cooperative relationships with leading universities across East Asia and worldwide, as well as with German and East Asian governments and organizations.

Competences and transferable skills

The PhD training is designed to develop the core competences central to conducting discipline-based research in and on East Asia, together with a set of transferable skills that enable doctoral candidates to build successful careers in academia or in policy-relevant employment.

Core competences for research include:

• excellent area of expertise in one country in East Asia (China, Japan, Korea)
• broad regional competence in East Asia
• high competence in at least one East Asian language
• strong methodological skills in a discipline
• interdisciplinary competence
• an international network within East Asian Studies and the relevant discipline
• transregional and transcultural expertise

GEAS also trains doctoral candidates in transferable skills and provides professional-development opportunities, including for careers outside academia in policy-related areas.

Transferable skills of high relevance to GEAS include:

• intercultural competence related to East Asia
• writing and presentation skills for both academic conferences and policy-related presentations
• an interdisciplinary learning experience that fosters research partnerships with scholars from the social sciences, history, economics and business, law, anthropology and the humanities
• teamwork in formal and informal research groups, and project management
• co-teaching experience

Postdoctoral fellowships at GEAS ran from 2013 to 2019 and are no longer offered; guests and associated researchers remain welcome — see Postdoctoral Program.