Thirteen UW-Whitewater faculty study and teach in China
Released: September 20, 2005
From May 26 to June 19, 2005, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater faculty traveled to China to develop new curriculum. Funded by a U.S. Department of Education Title VIA Grant to Enhance International Education and Dean Howard Ross of the College of Letters and Sciences, 13 UW-Whitewater faculty from departments such as political science, languages and literatures, marketing, communication, art and sociology spent three weeks researching and lecturing.
Chinese-born faculty Jian Guo, languages and literatures, and Xia Lollar, political science, helped plan and facilitate the trip, along with grant director Anne Hamilton, political science. Other faculty participants included: Jo Ellen Burkholder, sociology and anthropology, Charles Cottle, political science, Wade Dazey, philosophy and religious studies, Maxwell Hsu, marketing, Marcia James, business education and computer and network administration, Margo Kleinfeld, geography, Susan Messer, art, Larry Neuman, sociology, Barbara Penington, communication, and Max White, art.
The group spent the first nine days in Beijing as guests of Beijing Normal University, the next week in the port city of Tianjin as guests of the Zhou Enlai School of Government at Nankai University, and the last four days in Shijiazhuang as guests of Hebei Normal University. At each of the universities, four faculty members presented lectures, including: "Walmart and Globalization" by Cottle, "American Foreign Policy" by Hamilton, "U.S. Public Administration" by Lollar and "U.S. Immigration Issues" by Neuman. Additionally, four panel discussions involving all faculty were conducted and included: "Changing American Culture," "Teaching in America," the "United States and the World" and "The War in Iraq." Messer and White also made presentations to art faculty and students at Beijing Normal and Nankai University. After the trip, Messer returned to Beijing Normal to offer a weeklong class on book art.
As a result of the lectures and presentations, a number of faculty members were invited to return to China to teach courses. Hsu will return in January 2006 to teach a Ph.D.-level seminar on advanced quantitative methods. Neuman will return in May 2006 to teach sociology at Nankai University and Cottle will also return in May 2006 to lecture on John Rawls at Hebei Normal University.
The following are trip highlights from several faculty members:
Jo Ellen Burkholder, sociology and anthropology: "The Natural History museum in Tianjin showed how a pretty typical museum in China presents the relationship between humans and the natural world. As might be expected the approach taken was quite different from what we have traditionally done in the west. This is a useful example for a variety of my courses where we talk about popular presentations of culture, the role of museums, and the perceived relationship between humans and the ‘natural‘ world."
Wade Dazey, philosophy and religious studies: "I intend to expand the section on Chinese religions in my course ‘Introduction to Eastern Religions‘ to include more material on contemporary China, including the growing interest in Christianity among Chinese students, intellectuals and villagers."
Margo Kleinfeld, geography, wrote about the curricular revisions she plans to make in her "Geography of Asia" and "Human Geography" courses: "Although I had some familiarity with Chinese environment and pollution issues (e.g. coal burning, rising medical costs, etc.) before the trip, I was quite astonished to experience this first hand and will discuss this in class."
Barbara Penington, communication: "At Beijing Normal University, I was able to sit in on two English classes taught by Synthia Dong. Synthia and I have planned to do an email exchange project with our classes so my students gain practical experience interacting with students of another culture, while her students gain an opportunity to enhance their English skills through interaction with English speakers."
Max White, art: "Along Shanghai‘s ‘Xiantiandi Antiques Alley,‘ I purchased several Communist propaganda posters to use in my curriculum development pursuits, as well as for my general visual pleasure. I have a magnificent red, black and white Mao portrait, (the original was done as a woodcut), that could be used to demonstrate design principles of color, shape, line, texture, and emphasis, (within both 2-D Design or Printmaking course projects). These posters will assist me in conveying to students the cultural context out of which today‘s contemporary Chinese art is made."
This is the second faculty trip made possible through the U.S. Department of Education‘s Title VIA grant. In summer 2004, 12 faculty members spent two weeks in Russia, on a program organized by Elizabeth Hachten, history, and Wallace Sherlock, curriculum and instruction. The China and Russia trip participants will take part in a workshop in January 2006 to build on the collaborative networks established during the trips and to discuss how we might work together in the future to internationalize the campus further.
For a sampling of photos from the China trip, visit: http://facstaff.uww.edu/cottlec/china_2005.
- N & P Staff,npa@uww.edu
