Professors Brief Local Economic Group on China

Robert Seibert and Jason Helfer, Knox College faculty who visited China in December 2007, summarized their trips for members of the Galesburg Regional Economic Development Association, at an open forum on January 10, 2008, at the Galesburg Public Library.

Helfer discussed plans to send Knox students to China, to study methods of teaching English as a Second Language.

Seibert gave a summary of a trip that he and seven other group Knox College faculty made to China in December, as part of the College's Asian Studies initiative. The trip was supported by a grant to the Knox College Center for Global Studies from the Caterpillar Foundation.

"Our group had two major objectives: to gain useful academic perspectives on China that we can incorporate into our classrooms; and to begin the identification of universities with which we may negotiate exchange agreements," Seibert said.

The Knox faculty visited Beijing University, Renmin University, Heibei University, and Fudan University to discuss academic exchange programs with their Chinese counterparts.

"We are working toward an exchange of faculty between Knox and  Fudan University in Shanghai, with the first formal faculty visitor to Knox in the Fall term of 2008 and the first Knox visitor to Fudan to teach there in the Spring of 2009," Seibert said. Knox and the Chinese universities are also looking at proposals for a student exchange program and the use of web-based conferencing to facilitate collaboration and communication.

"These programs all add to the existing programs at Knox in Global Studies, Integrated International Studies, Asian Studies, and our regular curriculum," Seibert said. "Taken with other initiatives on the campus, China will become a major focus in our international curricula."

Seibert is the Robert W. Murphy Professor of Political Science at Knox. He and Michael Schneider, associate professor of history, co-direct the Center for Global Studies.

Robert Seibert,
Jason Helfer