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The Governing Rules

The Governing Rules

The Governing Rules

  1. The Transdisciplinary Research Cluster is to work as a decentralized administrative core within the University and form a 'hub' of transdisciplinary research. The Hub will consist of several theme-based research clusters with their individual Principal Coordinators.
  2. The Hub will function under the administrative control of the Rector and will be headed by a Cluster Director, for a period of 02 years.
  3. The Hub operations and administrative decisions etc. will be worked out through an advisory committee, to be chaired by the Rector.
  4. The Hub Advisory Committee, together with the Principal Coordinators will form the Academic Committee of the Research Cluster which will be chaired by the Rector.
  5. The Hub programmes will belong to the University while the faculty running them or associated with them will belong to the Schools within the University.
  6. It is imperative for the Hub to evolve in time, its own thematic clusters. These thematic clusters will be based on creative ideas.
  7. The Research Cluster through internal mechanisms, such as deliberations within the Academic Committee, must generate themes for innovative ideas and recommend recruitment of faculty members. Such recommendations must be sent to the Vice Chancellor, from time to time.
  8. The theme-based research clusters will apply for competitive grants and approach funding agencies for research support. These applications will be routed through the Cluster Director to the Project Cell and approved by the Rector.
  9. All proposals/applications to become a part of the Hub are basically seen as 'programmes'. However, some may grow and become Centres within the University. The Hub thus performs the act of an incubator for such programmes. As far as nomenclature goes, the Research Clusters may adopt such details, as desired by the relevant funding agency.
  10. In order to be part of the Cluster, a participating faculty must originate from a School (and associated Centres within the School), where the concepts or methods were originally developed, but now can be used by another School (and associated Centres within that School), or other Departments outside JNU, where further progress/application development can be infused, invoking transdisciplinarity.

A warm welcome to the modified and updated website of the Centre for East Asian Studies. The East Asian region has been at the forefront of several path-breaking changes since 1970s beginning with the redefining the development architecture with its State-led development model besides emerging as a major region in the global politics and a key hub of the sophisticated technologies. The Centre is one of the thirteen Centres of the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi that provides a holistic understanding of the region.

Initially, established as a Centre for Chinese and Japanese Studies, it subsequently grew to include Korean Studies as well. At present there are eight faculty members in the Centre. Several distinguished faculty who have now retired include the late Prof. Gargi Dutt, Prof. P.A.N. Murthy, Prof. G.P. Deshpande, Dr. Nranarayan Das, Prof. R.R. Krishnan and Prof. K.V. Kesavan. Besides, Dr. Madhu Bhalla served at the Centre in Chinese Studies Programme during 1994-2006. In addition, Ms. Kamlesh Jain and Dr. M. M. Kunju served the Centre as the Documentation Officers in Chinese and Japanese Studies respectively.

The academic curriculum covers both modern and contemporary facets of East Asia as each scholar specializes in an area of his/her interest in the region. The integrated course involves two semesters of classes at the M. Phil programme and a dissertation for the M. Phil and a thesis for Ph. D programme respectively. The central objective is to impart an interdisciplinary knowledge and understanding of history, foreign policy, government and politics, society and culture and political economy of the respective areas. Students can explore new and emerging themes such as East Asian regionalism, the evolving East Asian Community, the rise of China, resurgence of Japan and the prospects for reunification of the Korean peninsula. Additionally, the Centre lays great emphasis on the building of language skills. The background of scholars includes mostly from the social science disciplines; History, Political Science, Economics, Sociology, International Relations and language.

Several students of the centre have been recipients of prestigious research fellowships awarded by Japan Foundation, Mombusho (Ministry of Education, Government of Japan), Saburo Okita Memorial Fellowship, Nippon Foundation, Korea Foundation, Nehru Memorial Fellowship, and Fellowship from the Chinese and Taiwanese Governments. Besides, students from Japan receive fellowship from the Indian Council of Cultural Relations.