New Partnerships
Starting in 1979, new generations of Chinese students and scholars began to arrive in Ann Arbor. Some were children and grandchildren of earlier generations. Enrollments have reached new levels, and Michigan is helping to train the next leaders in Chinas universities and research institutes as well as in business, law, and other professions. Faculty from Chinas leading universities spend their sabbaticals in the University of Michigans schools and colleges. Delegations from leading Chinese universities visit Michigan, and groups of Michigan faculty, staff, and administrators travel to China. New agreements are being forged. Some of these collaborations include:
Delegation of Chinese Archivists and Bentley Library
staff gather in the library's courtyard during the first
Joint Seminar on Archival Methods, 1999.
Bentley Historical Library (University of Michigan)
Records, Box 32.
In 1979, Michigan psychologist Harold Stevenson invited the first Chinese psychologist to the United States since the Cultural Revolution. This visit resulted in the establishment of the Collaborative Research Center at the Institute of Psychology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which has fostered decades of continued collaborative research.
In 1995, the University of Michigans Institute for Social Research invited the Research Center for Contemporary China of Peking University to become part of an international consortium of leading social and behavioral research centers. This network is collaborating to develop truly international social and behavioral science research to address complex global issues.
In 1999, Michigans Bentley Historical Library and Chinas State Archives Administration of China initiated a program of archival cooperation and exchange, including a jointly sponsored seminar series.
In 2001, as part of the partnership between Michigans College of Engineering and Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Michigan became the first non-Chinese university authorized by Chinas Ministry of Education to grant degrees in China. Michigan faculty are teaching in Shanghai, and the College of Engineering is helping SJTU transform its curriculum in a number of engineering fields.
Detail of roof of Lama Temple (Yonghegong),
Beijing, photographed during Bentley Historical
Library delegation visit, 2005
Bentley Historical Library (University of
Michigan) Records, Box 32. Greg Kinney,
photographer.
Since 2002, faculty from Michigans Medical School have worked with the China Medical Board to address topics in medical education at Chinas leading medical schools. The Medical School is also working with Shanghai Jiao Tong University to establish a new model for medical education in China and to develop other reciprocal programs.
In 2003, the Ford School of Public Policy established a faculty exchange program with the School of Public Administration at Renmin University in Beijing. The first group of Chinese civil servants to earn a Masters in Public Administration through the Ford School completed their degrees in 2004.
In 2005, the University of Michigans Womens Studies Program and the Department of History of Fudan University began a collaboration to establish a new Institute for Gender Studies at Fudan, which will facilitate gender studies graduate teaching, research, and exchange among scholars of the two universities.
Chinese student party in Rackham Building, University of Michigan,
ca. late 1930s.
International Center (University of Michigan) Records, Box 17.