Humanities Research Center announces the launch of CARE Lab

The Humanities Research Center is proud to announce the launch of Caring for Animals REsearch Lab (CARE).

CARE Lab will be Co-Directed by Emily McWilliams, Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Humanities at Duke Kunshan University, and Claudia Nisa, Assistant Professor of Behavioral Science at Duke Kunshan University. See their bios here.

CARE Lab’s theme, scope, and significance

The Caring for Animals REsearch Lab (CARE) aims to be a leading interdisciplinary scientific hub for research, practice and policy discussions about animal welfare, both on campus at DKU and in collaboration with interested partners throughout China, and globally.

Continue reading “Humanities Research Center announces the launch of CARE Lab”

Becoming Environmental Citizens: The Transformative Potentials of Citizen Science in China

The Citizenship Lab of the Humanities Research Center presents Manuscript Workshop: “Becoming Environmental Citizens: The Transformative Potentials of Citizen Science in China”

Date & Time: Thurs, Sept 1, 2022, 4-5:30pm BJT
Speaker:
Coraline Goron, Assistant Professor of Environmental Policy at Duke Kushan University
In-Person: IB 2050
Zoom: 933 5597 1781 Continue reading “Becoming Environmental Citizens: The Transformative Potentials of Citizen Science in China”

Student Research Project: “The Forgotten Romance: An Art and Social History Study on Chinese Peasant Painting of 1950-70s”

Zheng Zou is one of the nine winners of 2022 Freedom Lab’s Shirley Graham and W.E.B Du Bois Award.

His research project is highlighted below. Read other student researcher’s projects here >>

ZHENG ZOU
Supported by Professor Qian Zhu

Project title:
The Forgotten Romance: An Art and Social History Study on Chinese Peasant Painting of 1950-70s

Project summary:

Chinese Peasant Painting was a major art movement in China active from 1950s to the late 1970s. It was the first time for Chinese peasants to engage in official art creation, which had long been reserved for the intellectual class. By examining the origin of a Chinese peasant painting, Chinese peasant paintings’ visual elements, and the movement’s interaction with socialist art trends in the mid-twentieth century, I argue that the Chinese peasant painting movement was a continuation and development of the mass movement since the founding of New China. Continue reading “Student Research Project: “The Forgotten Romance: An Art and Social History Study on Chinese Peasant Painting of 1950-70s””

A new special issue of “Positions Asia Critique”

HRC is proud to announce a new special issue from Positions, which came out of an HRC sponsored workshop.

Issue editors:
Nellie Chu – Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Duke Kunshan University (DKU)
Mengqi Wang – Assistant Professor of Anthropology at DKU
Ralph Litzinger – Associate Professor of Cultural Anthropology and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Cultural Anthropology at Duke University
Qian Zhu – Assistant Professor of History at DKU

Positions – August 1, Volume 30, Issue 3

Student Research Project: Meixuan Wang’s “The Feminine Fabulation: An Interdisciplinary Reading of Female K-Pop Idols’ Star Texts”

Meixuan Wang is one of the nine winners of 2022 Freedom Lab’s Shirley Graham and W.E.B Du Bois Award.

Her research project is highlighted below. Read other student researcher’s projects here >>

MEIXUAN WANG
Supported by Professor Jung Choi

Project title:
The Feminine Fabulation: An Interdisciplinary Reading of Female K-Pop Idols’ Star Texts

Project summary:
This project presents an interdisciplinary examination of the complex and in-depth dimensions of society manifested in visual and entertainment culture by focusing on female K-Pop idols’ star texts in the globalization era. It shall revisit the potential of feminine qualities through female idols’ embodied dialogues with particular social and cultural ideologies. Ultimately, the findings on these postmodern star texts will be approached as fabulations that bring together “archaic and contemporary, as well as documentary and fictional” to produce collective storytelling, and in turn, contributes to “the making of a people” (Chow 2007, pp.25). Continue reading “Student Research Project: Meixuan Wang’s “The Feminine Fabulation: An Interdisciplinary Reading of Female K-Pop Idols’ Star Texts””

Student Research Project: Shuyuan Zhou’s “My Great Grandmother, My Grand Aunt, My Grandmother, My Mother and I: A Family Album”

Shuyuan Zhou is one of the nine winners of 2022 Freedom Lab’s Shirley Graham and W.E.B Du Bois Award.

Her research project is highlighted below. Read other student researcher’s projects here >>

SHUYUAN ZHOU
Supported by Professor Zairong Xiang

Project title:
My Great Grandmother, My Grand Aunt, My Grandmother, My Mother and I: A Family Album

Project summary:
Shuyuan’s signature work will be an exploration of female intergenerational relations in a patriarchal context.  By using photography as her main artistic medium, she draws from her own and her family’s experiences to present a personal, first-person perspective on social issues related to gender and generation in China over the last century. The long-term goal of this project is to use art to focus on intergenerational relationships of women in a patriarchal setting. By focusing on her own past and complex family structure, she hopes that her artworks will interact with the static patriarchal art world and draw the viewer’s attention to two long-neglected social issues: aberrant gender inequality and intergenerational relationships in Chinese society. Continue reading “Student Research Project: Shuyuan Zhou’s “My Great Grandmother, My Grand Aunt, My Grandmother, My Mother and I: A Family Album””

Student Research Project: Reika Shimomura’s “College Students’ Perception of COVID-19 Emergency Response on Campus – Delphi Study on Duke Kunshan University Students Class of 2022 to 2025”

REIKA SHIMOMURA is one of the nine winners of 2022 Freedom Lab’s Shirley Graham and W.E.B Du Bois Award.

Her research project is highlighted below. Read other student researcher’s projects here >>

REIKA SHIMOMURA
Supported by Professor Daniel Weissglass

Project title:
College Students’ Perception of COVID-19 Emergency Response on Campus – Delphi Study on Duke Kunshan University Students Class of 2022 to 2025

Project summary:
Students or the members of an institution are placed in a disadvantaged position in the situations of infectious diseases’ emergency response and interventions. In this study, the ethical issues regarding the power dynamics of the relationship between the institution and the members of the institution are addressed. This study will give an opportunity for the voices of the members to be heard by the upper-level decision makers of the institution and have actionable content that can be considered in future emergency-related policies. Continue reading “Student Research Project: Reika Shimomura’s “College Students’ Perception of COVID-19 Emergency Response on Campus – Delphi Study on Duke Kunshan University Students Class of 2022 to 2025””

Student Research Project: Zhiyuan (Zack) Liu’s “Exploring attentional biases towards foreigners’ facial expressions of pain in Chinese observers”

Zhiyuan (Zack) Liu is one of the nine winners of 2022 Freedom Lab’s Shirley Graham and W.E.B Du Bois Award.

His research project is highlighted below. Read other student researcher’s projects here >>

 

ZHIYUAN (ZACK) LIU

Supported by Professor Shan Wang

Project title:
Exploring attentional biases towards foreigners’ facial expressions of pain in Chinese observers

Project summary:
Facial expression is a dominant nonverbal channel for pain communication that is often incorporated in clinical pain assessment. Given the importance of nonverbal communication between foreign patients and doctors, understanding the role of sufferers’ race is of great significance. Essentially, prior to recognize and assess pain-related facial expressions, observers will first allocate their attention to the faces. The study aims to examine Chinese observers’ attentional bias on pain-related facial expressions of foreigners from multiple racial backgrounds by tracking the eye-gaze, skin conductance, and behavioral reaction time. Continue reading “Student Research Project: Zhiyuan (Zack) Liu’s “Exploring attentional biases towards foreigners’ facial expressions of pain in Chinese observers””

Student Research Project: Weiran Li’s “Herb and Beauty: Aromatic Female in ‘Dream of the Red Chamber'”

Weiran Li is one of the nine winners of 2022 Freedom Lab’s Shirley Graham and W.E.B Du Bois Award.

Her research project is highlighted below. Read other student researcher’s projects here >>

WEIRAN LI
Supported by Professor Wenting Ji

Project title:
Herb and Beauty: Aromatic Female in “Dream of the Red Chamber”

Project summary:
Through a close reading of the poems and descriptions of Daguan Yuan’s female in Dream of the Red Chamber, I mainly explore two questions in this project: How does herb in Dream of the Red Chamber construct female identity? How does the nature-female correlation narrative style embody the feminine space and feminine discourse in the book? Theories related to sensory experiences, eco-feminism, and traditional Chinese medicine will also be referred in the project. Continue reading “Student Research Project: Weiran Li’s “Herb and Beauty: Aromatic Female in ‘Dream of the Red Chamber’””