Uneasy Allies: Sino-American Relations at the Grassroots, 1940–1949
The largest sustained engagement between Americans and Chinese that ever occurred in China took place during the 1940s. During this period, individual American and Chinese soldiers, scientists, nurses, and truck drivers, among many others, came together to collaborate in the fight against Japan. These interactions had a resonating impact: shaping popular perceptions of China and the United States, impacting the development of new and powerful institutions, and creating new markets and demands that would transform both countries and indeed much of East Asia. Yet, we know surprisingly little about these important grassroots interactions between Americans and Chinese. This conference, Sino-American Relations at the Grassroots, is an attempt to shine a direct light on the interactions between Americans and Chinese at all levels of the socio-economic spectrum in the 1940s. Focusing on grassroots perspectives rather than elite politics enables us to explore a wide range of Sino-American encounters during this period, from interaction between ordinary American servicemen and Chinese civilians to the trans-Pacific material exchange of American industrial goods for Chinese raw materials. Other themes include transnational disease control, intelligence and scientific collaboration, educational exchange, and the subjective experience of war. In addition to discussing current research, we plan to outline a framework for further study on the 1940s. (more…)
Undergraduate Humanities Research Conference
On April 19-21, 2019 at Duke Kunshan University, DKU undergraduate students were joined by seniors from top Chinese universities for the very first DKU undergraduate humanities research conference. Envisaged by the humanities research center to provide an open platform for junior college students to learn how to do research when DKU just started its undergraduate program in 2018, the DKU undergraduate humanities research conference ended up bringing more than 40 students together for academic presentations and discussions. (more…)
Urban Villages in China
Over the last three decades, China’s rapid urbanization has been facilitated by the unprecedented mobility of rural migrant populations. Today it is estimated that some 240 million migrants have left the countryside to work in China’s cities, though the number is surely much higher. While there are heated debates about how to characterize what some have dubbed “largest human migration in history,” there is general agreement that this mobility has resulted from the increased demand for formal and informal labor in industry, for urban fringe agriculture, and for a range of services (everything from recycling and trash collection, to domestic work for the middle class to road and building construction, hotel work, food delivery services, entertainment and beauty services, sex work, and much more). As scholars on migration have emphasized, this mass human migration has unveiled the fluidity and dynamism of the rural and urban divide, even while the hukou 户口 or “household registration system,” created in the late 1950s, has remained the dominant mode to categorize and count rural and urban populations. Less understood is how rural migration to different kinds of urban spaces has created ambiguous interstitial spaces and networks through which new forms of labor and production of surplus value are emerging. These uneven urban spaces are inextricably linked to transformations in regimes of production and land use, as well as to changes in the organization of kinship and other social relations. (more…)
Undergraduate Humanities Research Conference Program
Duke Kunshan University is pleased to announce the winning submissions to the first Undergraduate Humanities Research Conference from April 19-21, 2019. Over 230 applications were received from across China, and 40 papers were chosen for inclusion in the final program. (more…)
Attending the 2019 Artificial Intelligence, Ethics and Society Conference
by Runya Liu
As a member of the Planetary Ethics and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (PETAL) I had the privilege of attending a conference on Artificial Intelligence, Ethics and Society with Duke Kunshan University Professor Daniel Lim in Hawai’i from January 27-28. The invited talks and presentations were wonderful opportunities to learn how people from different fields see the ethical issues related to AI. People majoring in law, engineering, computer science, philosophy, etc., were all here to discuss the future development of AI. People gathered because they want to contribute to problems that the whole human race is going to face. The hot discussion triggered by questions in talks and presentations created an sincere academic atmosphere. (more…)
Reflections on Pedagogy and Philosophy
by Julius Vaitkevicius, Nanjing University
The workshop on Philosophy and Pedagogy at Kunshan Duke University provided a valuable opportunity for educators around the world to discuss and share insights gained in teaching philosophies in cross-cultural environments. The theme of the workshop focused on the notion that philosophy could be taught not only as a bare conceptual discourse but as a way of life, a way that has therapeutic and psychological benefits on those who pursue philosophical studies. More specifically, teaching ancient Chinese Philosophies could help international students to adapt toliving in Chinese culture and facilitate in overcoming cross-cultural boundaries as well as learn how to deal with daily personal issues and challenges. But what pedagogical approaches could or should be taken to apply the philosophical pedagogy in practice? Participants had to admit that nobody would claim to have a ready-made answer to this question. There are certain theories, methods, strategies, and techniques, but it is up to the educator to decide which of the approaches would be the most appropriate and effective in a particular academic setting. (more…)
Imran Khan: Carving a Creative Pathway in the Corporate World
By Hajra Farooqui
College students around the world constantly face an enormous dilemma: How does one choose a field of study that guarantees sustained intellectual stimulation, is applicable to the daily functioning of the real world, can offer financial support and can keep our indecisive moving selves rationally happy in the long term? The truth is, this is not an easy question, and is one with many answers. To help students think through these questions the Humanities Research Center joined with Duke Kunshan Careers Services to invite Imran Khan to present at the Humanities Career Forum. (more…)
与David Grinspoon探讨太空生物学
By Elva Yu
DKU Humanities Research Center 的 Petal Lab 一直在给让人文和科技牵线搭桥，初进入时，我只知这里可以研究深刻有趣的伦理道德问题。后来才渐悟 James Miller 教授所言：“这世界的伦理问题光靠人文学科的思索是不能解决的，我们要把那些科学家‘拉下水’，让他们直面自己的研究背后所蕴含的人类意义”
1月21号，Petal Lab 邀请了David Grinspoon来学校开展讲座，题为“太空生物学：人类在地球和地球之外的角色”。讲座后，这位科学家和DKU的一些教授以及Petal Lab全体师生在晚餐间继续碰撞思想的火花。
New Media Art in Shanghai
On Saturday December 1st, the Petal fellows and their advisor, Dr. James Miller, traveled to Shanghai to meet artists Fito Segrera and Benjamin Bacon. The students first went to the M50 art district, near the French concession in Shanghai, and had lunch with Fito. After lunch, Fito showed the students around the Chronus Art Center, and later, his personal workshop. (more…)
A Discussion with Daniel Seng on Artifical Intelligence and Law
Daniel Seng is Associate Professor of Law at the School of Computing, at the National University of Singapore. He graduate from Stanford University’s doctorak program in Empirical Sciences and the Law (JSD). His areas of expertise are intellectual property, information technology, law, machine learning, NLP and quantitative legal analysis. (more…)
