Each academic year, the East Asian Legal Studies program hosts a number of Visiting Scholars who come to EALS from academe, government, or law practice to pursue their own research and write on a range of subjects. We strive to invite a diverse group of visitors who represent a variety of home institutions, jurisdictions, and legal fields.
Research
Visiting Scholars are provided access to all of the libraries at Harvard University. The Law School library is the largest academic law library in the world and its highly skilled staff include two librarians specializing in East Asia. The intellectual richness of the Visiting Scholar experience is deepened through required participation in “roundtable” discussions, at which each Scholar shares works-in-progress and seeks feedback from the other Scholars. Roundtables are usually held once a week during the spring and fall semesters.
Auditing
Visiting Scholars may seek permission to audit one (or in exceptional cases, two) Law School courses per semester. Course descriptions are in the Law School Course Catalog. The availability of a course for auditing is at the discretion of the instructor. Auditing is more likely to be permitted in large classes and less likely in smaller classes, such as seminars or reading groups. Auditing is typically not allowed in clinics or in first-year courses.
Duration
EALS offers appointments of maximum twelve months at a time. We highly recommend that Visiting Scholars come to Harvard for a full academic year, arriving by late August and staying at least through late May. Applications for only one semester, or periods less than twelve months, will also be considered. (The fall semester runs from late August to mid-December, and the spring semester from mid-January to mid-May.) With reasonable exceptions for brief trips consistent with visa and other legal requirements, Visiting Scholars are expected to remain in the Cambridge area during the term of their appointment.
Visiting Scholar Fee and Funding
The EALS Visiting Scholar fee is $750 per month of appointment.
This fee is reduced to $385 per month of appointment in the following cases:
Visiting Scholars who received their highest law degree within the last ten years and who are pursuing a career in academe.
Visiting Scholars who are currently completing a doctorate or other advanced law degree.
EALS has limited financial aid funding to cover the Visiting Scholar fee.
All applicants (whether seeking financial aid or not) are required to submit a complete and accurate listing of their sources of funding to support their visit – which is subject to verification. Inaccurate statements may lead to denial of one’s application or even revocation of an acceptance.
The U.S. Government and Harvard University require Visiting Scholars to show that they have funding available for their time here. In order to be eligible for a J-1 visa sponsored by Harvard, an individual must show they have available at least $2,917 per month ($35,000 per year), not including the Visiting Scholar fee. At least an additional $542 per month ($6,500 per year) must be available for each accompanying family member.
Housing
Visiting Scholars are responsible for securing their own housing, and we suggest that Scholars start looking online a few months before they arrive. Useful information may be found on the Harvard International Office website’s Housing page. Currently, Visiting Scholars are not eligible for Law School housing or Harvard University Housing.
Note
The foregoing is contingent on public health guidance and accordingly is subject to alteration should circumstances warrant.
EALS is not able to provide office space or clerical services for Visiting Scholars.
Scholars interested in affiliation with another program at the Law School (such as the HLS Graduate Program, the Islamic Legal Studies Program, the HLS Human Rights Program, or the HLS Project on Disability) should contact them directly for information about their visitor programs. Opportunities are also available for conducting research on East Asia-related topics other than law at a number of other research centers at Harvard, including the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, the Program on U.S.-Japan Relations, the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, the Korea Institute, and the Asia Center.
Visiting Scholar Application
Selection Criteria
In selecting applicants, consideration is made of each applicant’s background, field of interest, and achievements in scholarship and/or practice. Particular weight will be given to the research proposal. The applicant’s English language level is also an important factor, as it has been our experience that Visiting Scholars who arrive at Harvard already highly proficient in English benefit much more from their experience. EALS does not have a minimum score requirement for standardized tests. Generally, Visiting Scholars have a total TOEFL score of at least 100, with at least 22 in each subsection (Reading, Listening, Speaking, Writing).
Application Deadline
The application deadline is February 15 for the following academic year or any part thereof. On occasion, we may consider applications at other times. If you would like to apply but will not be able to meet the February 15 deadline, please contact us as soon as possible.
Required Application Materials
Online application form: Please see below for information about the online application system (CARAT).
CV: Your CV must include: (1) your undergraduate and graduate education information, including schools (and their locations), degrees, majors, and dates of study; (2) your employment history, including names of companies or organizations, your positions or titles, and dates of employment (month and year); and (3) a list of your publications. For each publication, please provide a full citation in the language in which it was published (e.g. in English, Chinese, Japanese, Korean). If it was not published in English, please also provide a full citation translated into English.
Research proposal: Please submit a research proposal of no more than five pages. It should include a detailed description of your proposed project, the methodology you plan to employ, and your objectives. Please explain why EALS is an appropriate setting for undertaking your research, including the resources that you plan to use at Harvard, and any Law School faculty in your research area that you may wish to consult. Please also explain how time spent as a Visiting Scholar fits into your long- term research goals.
Personal statement: Please submit a personal statement of no more than five pages. We receive applications from many outstanding scholars and practitioners from around the world, and we encourage you to take this opportunity to show us how you are different from other applicants. What are your intellectual and professional aspirations? How have you contributed to your community, nation, place of work or study? In what ways would a research stay at EALS influence your thinking and work in the future?
Academic transcripts: Please submit scans of transcripts. If you are accepted as a Visiting Scholar, we may require formal transcripts.
TOEFL or IELTS score, or waiver request: Please submit a recent TOEFL (preferred) or IELTS score report. If you graduated from a degree program conducted entirely in English — for example, you received an LL.M. degree from a law school in the U.S. — you may request a waiver by submitting an academic transcript for that degree. Please note that in order to sponsor a J-1 visa, we are required by the U.S. Government to certify that a Visiting Scholar has sufficient English language proficiency.
2 reference letters: We require at least two reference letters. If you have previously been at Harvard, at least one reference letter must be from a Harvard faculty member. Your recommenders must submit their letters by uploading them onto CARAT in PDF format. Once you submit your application, your recommenders will receive an invitation email with instructions to upload their letter.
$50 application fee: You may pay the application fee with a debit or credit card by going to this website: EALS Visiting Scholar Application Fee. Alternatively, you may send the application fee (check or money order payable to Harvard University) by regular or registered mail to East Asian Legal Studies, Harvard Law School, 1585 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. The application fee may be waived in some circumstances.
Interview, if applicable: During the application review process, we may contact you for an interview. Interviews are conducted on Zoom.
Optional Application Materials
If you wish, you may submit a third reference letter — please ask your third recommender to email it to Deborah Han.
CARAT Submission Instructions
All required application materials (other than the application fee) must be submitted on the online application system, CARAT. Please submit your application by February 15 at 11:59 pm Eastern Time. We recommend that you submit your application early to give your recommenders time to submit their reference letters. Once you submit your application, your recommenders will receive an invitation email from CARAT with a link to upload their letter.
Decisions
For applications (including reference letters) submitted by February 15, decisions will be communicated by April 1. While we will consider exigent circumstances, applicants should understand that for reasons of fairness to our entire applicant pool, we are unlikely to be able to communicate decisions prior to April 1.
Questions
If you have questions about CARAT, please email Deborah Han. If you have other questions related to the application, please email Alice Izumo.
