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Center for Modern China Studies Opens

University of Freiburg and Nanjing University strengthen their strategic partnership with institutes in both cities

Freiburg, May 04, 2016

Center for Modern China Studies Opens

Hans-Jochen Schiewer and Jian Lyu, Vice-President of Nanjing University, open the Freiburg–Nanjing Center for Modern China Studies. Photo: Patrick Seeger

One center, two locations: The “Freiburg–Nanjing Center for Modern China Studies” at the University of Freiburg has opened its doors – less than a year after the opening of its partner institute at Nanjing University, China, on 1 June 2015. It is the first time the University of Freiburg has established a center of this kind with another university. “This is a milestone in the history of our internationalization,” says Rector Prof. Dr. Hans-Jochen Schiewer. “The twin institutes will form a strong entity, enhance the worldwide visibility of our research in modern China studies, and take the strategic partnership between our universities to a new level.”

The University of Freiburg’s Institute of Sinology and Nanjing University’s School of Social and Behavioral Sciences will work together at the new center. Planned activities include the exchange of academic staff, a scholarship program for student exchange, workshops, and conferences. Also planned are joint research projects on topics like social mobilization and collective memory in China after 1949. “We want to conduct research with China, not just about China. The center gives us a unique opportunity to bring together different skills and points of view,” says Nicola Spakowski, professor of Sinology at the University of Freiburg and founding director of the new center. In addition, the center plans to present research findings to the public together with the Freiburg Confucius Institute.

The partner universities also aim to intensify their research cooperation in a second core area: materials sciences. An initial conference on this topic was held in Nanjing in November 2015, and a second one is scheduled for October 2016 in Freiburg. The goal is to examine the potential for cooperation and for joint third-party funding proposals.

The University of Freiburg and Nanjing University established their partnership in 1999 with a student exchange agreement and have since continually expanded it. The most important milestones include the agreement between the Confucius Institute, the University of Freiburg, and the City of Freiburg from 2009 on the joint establishment of the Freiburg Confucius Institute with Nanjing University as a partner and the memorandum of understanding between the two universities on expanding the exchange of students and academic staff in 2014.

Further information


Contact:

Prof. Dr. Nicola Spakowski
Institute of Sinology
University of Freiburg
Phone: +49 (0)761/203-67751
E-Mail: nicola.spakowski@sinologie.uni-freiburg.de


Printable version (pdf) of the press release.

German Press Release