Why Asian Studies?

Montage of images - one showing tower in Burma, another a view looking down on a person holding stick across their shoulder which is balancing a basket of limes on one side and basket of lemons on the other, the final image is marketplace selling yellow and orange cloth

Asian Studies is an interdisciplinary program that introduces students to the critical and methodological approaches that have informed the study of Asia. As one of the largest interdisciplinary programs at Swarthmore, Asian Studies trains students in the study of diverse texts, images, performances, bodies of knowledge, and cultural practices across geographic and temporal boundaries. Students are encouraged to engage in a rigorous examination of the political, economic, social, environmental, and religious formations of the myraid societies that have constituted Asia. Asian Studies aims to provide students with a depth of knowledge and multiple critical perspectives with which to understand how these diverse locales have been and continue to be interwoven with the global.