Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Cambridge

Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Cambridge
Name	Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
Established	20th century
Type	Faculty
Parent	University of Cambridge
City	Cambridge
Country	United Kingdom

Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Cambridge is the University of Cambridge faculty responsible for undergraduate and postgraduate teaching and research in languages, literatures, histories, religions, and cultures of Asia and the Middle East. The faculty interfaces with the wider University of Cambridge colleges, the University Library, and external institutions to deliver programs spanning classical to modern periods across South Asia, Central Asia, East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East.

History

The faculty traces institutional antecedents to nineteenth- and twentieth-century Cambridge appointments that connected Cambridge with global centers such as Calcutta, Beijing, Istanbul, Tehran, and Tokyo, and engaged figures associated with British Raj, Meiji Restoration, Safavid dynasty, Ottoman Empire, and Qing dynasty. Early chairs and lecturers had links to institutions like School of Oriental and African Studies, Royal Asiatic Society, British Museum, British Library, and collections related to Alexander Cunningham, Max Müller, Sir Henry Yule, and Sir William Jones. Twentieth-century developments aligned the faculty with international events including the Indian independence movement, Boxer Rebellion, Russo-Japanese War, Suez Crisis, and postwar decolonization, while scholarly exchanges involved scholars connected to Princeton University, Harvard University, University of Chicago, Leiden University, and École française d'Extrême-Orient.

Academic Departments and Programs

The faculty organizes teaching into language- and region-based strands covering programs in Arabic language, Hebrew language, Persian language, Turkish language, Urdu language, Hindi language, Bengali language, Sanskrit, Pali language, Tibetan language, Chinese language, Japanese language, Korean language, Thai language, and Indonesian language, linked to modules on histories and literatures associated with Confucius, Laozi, Mencius, Sun Tzu, Rabindranath Tagore, Kabir, Ibn Battuta, Rumi, Al-Ghazali, Ibn Khaldun, Nizami Ganjavi, Saadi Shirazi, and Murasaki Shikibu. Degree pathways connect to University of Cambridge tripos structures, intercollegiate supervision, and joint options with faculties such as Faculty of History, Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages, Faculty of Law, Faculty of Divinity, and the Department of Politics and International Studies.

Research and Centres

Research themes span medieval manuscripts and epigraphy linked to Dead Sea Scrolls, Kharosthi inscriptions, Harappan civilization, and Tang dynasty documents, as well as modern studies on state formation and movements such as Indian National Congress, All-India Muslim League, Young Turks, Ba'ath Party, and Chinese Communist Party. The faculty hosts and collaborates with centres and projects associated with Cambridge Asia Centre, manuscript initiatives akin to Sanskrit Manuscripts Project, editions comparable to Loeb Classical Library efforts, and collaborations with museums such as the Fitzwilliam Museum, British Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, and libraries like the Cambridge University Library and collections linked to Hewlett-Packard-sponsored digitization and partnerships with UNESCO cultural programs.

Facilities and Resources

Teaching and research are supported by seminar rooms, language laboratories, and specialist resources including manuscript collections, visual archives, and digital corpora that connect to catalogues used by Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Brill, Routledge, and Bloomsbury. Physical and digital holdings draw on donations and bequests related to figures such as Gertrude Bell, T. E. Lawrence, St. John Philby, Sir Aurel Stein, and archives comparable to those of Satyajit Ray and I. M. Pei. The faculty leverages interlibrary loan networks with institutions such as Library of Congress, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Bodleian Library, and National Library of China.

Governance and Administration

The faculty is administered through elected officers, heads of subject areas, and committees that coordinate with the University of Cambridge Faculty Board, college Tutors, and University governance bodies including the General Board of the Faculties and the Governing Body structures of individual colleges such as Trinity College, Cambridge, King's College, Cambridge, St John's College, Cambridge, and St Catharine's College, Cambridge. Appointment and promotion processes follow frameworks similar to those used by major research universities including University of Oxford, Yale University, Columbia University, and University of Toronto, with external examiners and visiting professors drawn from institutions like SOAS University of London, Heidelberg University, Kyoto University, and National University of Singapore.

Student Body and Admissions

Undergraduate and postgraduate cohorts include students from colleges across Cambridge and international applicants from regions including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, China, Japan, South Korea, Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Lebanon, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam. Admissions engage interviews modeled on Cambridge college practices, referencing qualifications like A-levels, International Baccalaureate, and national examinations comparable to Gaokao and JEE. Graduate funding and scholarships echo schemes such as those from Gates Cambridge Scholarship, Commonwealth Scholarship, Rhodes Scholarship, and fellowships tied to research councils like the Arts and Humanities Research Council and programs administered by European Research Council collaborators.

Notable Alumni and Faculty

Alumni and faculty have included scholars, diplomats, and cultural figures linked to institutions and events such as United Nations, British Foreign Office, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Indian Civil Service, All-India Muslim League, Baghdad Pact, and cultural production related to Bollywood, Kabuki, Noh theatre, and Persian miniature painting. Individual connections reflect intersections with personalities associated with Gertrude Bell, T. E. Lawrence, Edward Said, Bernard Lewis, W. H. Auden, Joseph Needham, Arthur Waley, Ralph Lilley Turner, John D. Rockefeller, Henry Wellcome, S. R. Ranganathan, and contemporary scholars linked to Martha Craven Nussbaum, Pankaj Mishra, Amitav Ghosh, Orhan Pamuk, and Amartya Sen.

Category:University of Cambridge faculties