The Asian Sphere is a joint Israeli program between the University of Haifa and the Hebrew University, funded by the Humanities Fund of the Planning and Budgeting Committee of the Council for Higher Education in Israel (VATAT) and Yad Hanadiv. It is a structured graduate program of excellence that deals with the entire Asian continent as a continuous civilizational zone and addresses cross-regional contacts and processes among Asian societies, cultures and states and to a lesser extent between Asia and other continents throughout history until present time.
The Asian Sphere Program is an interdisciplinary program. We encourage synergy between different fields of knowledge and accepts students from different disciplines in the humanities and social sciences, including Asian Studies, Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, Art History, Archaeology, Geography, Political Science, International Relations, Cultural Studies, History, Literature, Religious Studies, Philosophy, Anthropology, Sociology, Economics, and more. Research topics are open and can deal with past or current societies. The core of the Asian Sphere Program's teaching activity revolves around advanced seminars on trans-regional, trans-continental and trans-cultural themes, each taught by two or more internationally renowned scholars. In addition, students who are accepted to the program will participate in annual academic retreats, research trips in Israel and abroad, academic conferences and other activities.
The Asian Sphere is an international program opened to outstanding candidates, at the MA and PhD level, from Israel and from abroad. We offer competitive scholarships for MA students and full scholarships (including tuition and living stipend) for PhD students.
