Faculty to Visit China

A distinguished visiting scholar from China is helping eight Knox College faculty members prepare for a two-week trip to China later this fall. Visiting associate professor of international relations Gu Limei, an expert on Chinese politics from Fudan University in Shanghai, is leading the weekly seminar for Knox faculty participating in the Caterpillar China Project.

"I am very impressed by the professors here -- they have studied very hard preparing for the trip," Gu said. "The U.S. news media are paying more attention to China now than a few years ago. But they still focus mostly on negative aspects."

Gu says that she has worked to "show the faculty the positive aspects, economic development and improvements in the quality of life of the people." At the same time, she says, "as a scholar, I can tell them about my research and my individual opinions about the government. There are shortcomings, but also lots of achievements."

In addition to the faculty seminar, Gu has been teaching students in a course, Survey of Contemporary China. "I like the students here very much. They are very smart and very curious about China."

At Fudan University, Gu is associate professor in the School of International Relations and Public Affairs, and serves as vice-director of the Master's Program in Public Administration, and the Center of Development and Public Policy. She completed a doctorate in 2001 at Fudan University and specializes in public policy analysis, and local governance in the United States and China.

The seminar and trip -- dubbed the Caterpillar China Project, because it is supported by a grant from the Caterpillar Foundation to the Center for Global Studies at Knox -- is designed to expand the number of faculty with experience in China, according to Michael Schneider, associate professor of history and co-director of the Center for Global Studies.

The two-week trip to China in November and December is the kind of "intensive, academically-focused experience that will have consequences, expected and unexpected, across the curriculum," Schneider said. The faculty members had to prepare proposals outlining how they would apply their experiences in China to their teaching.

The faculty members are David Amor, journalism and sociology; Diana Beck, educational studies; Steve Cohn, economics; Penny Gold, history; Michael Schneider, history; Charles Schulz, physics; Robert Seibert, political science; and Shuyan Shipplett, modern languages.

Shipplett, a lecturer in Chinese, has been leading language sessions for the seminar.

"We anticipate that faculty will incorporate their experiences into their courses," Schneider said. "The experience also will help faculty advise students who are interested in off-campus study." About half of Knox students participate in off-campus study, including programs in China, Japan and India.

While in China, the Knox faculty plan to study government and business, and hold meetings with Knox alumni and friends of the College currently residing in China.

Because the seminar participants will be in China "in faculty mode, not in tourist mode, they'll go to places they might not have visited on their own," Schneider said.

"Chinese food is so diverse, and Chinese menus can be so daunting, that it's just as important to learn the Chinese terms for the things that you don't want to eat," Schneider advised the faculty seminar at the start of a recent language session that covered food. "If you don't want to eat pork or kidney or liver, you should be able to spot those characters. If you're allergic to shrimp and you see 'three fish' on the menu, you can be sure than one of them is shrimp," Schneider said.

The Caterpillar China Project is the third of its kind developed by the Center for Global Studies at Knox College. In 2003, five Knox College faculty visited Tanzania and eight visited Japan, under grants from the U.S. Department of Education, the Japan Study Program at Earlham College, and the Global Partners Project, an international curriculum development initiative funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Other recent developments in the Asian Studies field at Knox have included a lecture in 2007 by the Chinese ambassador to the United States; a campus visit from a representative of a Chinese teachers' college; creation of a new program in Asian Studies; and the hiring of a Chinese historian and Chinese linguist on the Knox faculty.

Founded in 1837, Knox is a national liberal arts college in Galesburg, Illinois, with students from 45 states and 44 nations. Knox's "Old Main" is a National Historic Landmark and the only building remaining from the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates.

Professor Gu Limei leads a seminar for Knox faculty preparing for a trip to China