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Chinese Government and Politics to<br />

Game Theory to Modernity and World<br />

Social Thought. Students feel the pressure<br />

of adjusting to classroom immersion<br />

in their target languages—but,<br />

like students in previous years, they<br />

will discover internal resources they<br />

never knew they had. The fruit of<br />

their struggles will be an augmented<br />

repertoire of fresh ways of conceptualizing<br />

both the world around them and,<br />

even more crucially, the human beings<br />

around them—including their confoundingly<br />

other, and stubborn, views<br />

of the world and how it should be.<br />

Turning to the <strong>SAIS</strong> “Year of Agriculture”<br />

theme, last year and this year<br />

have seen field trips and research dedicated<br />

to agriculture—not surprising<br />

in a country where more than a third<br />

of the population is still primarily<br />

engaged in growing food.<br />

Last spring, Professor Adam Webb<br />

led a field trip for his Politics of Rural<br />

Development class to a village in<br />

nearby Anhui Province, where students<br />

interviewed farmers and spent<br />

the night in locals’ homes. This year<br />

Professor Zhao Shudong will again<br />

lead students on field trips to the<br />

northern part of Jiangsu Province to<br />

see how agricultural policies affect<br />

farmers. And second-year master of<br />

arts in International Studies student<br />

Shirlene Yee N’12 will be conducting<br />

field research in Taiwan on various<br />

aspects of agriculture, including<br />

the impact of cross-Strait policies on<br />

farmers’ livelihoods and on the everdeepening<br />

ties between Taiwan and<br />

the mainland.<br />

Personally, I could not be more<br />

thrilled to be the new American codirector<br />

of this ever-more-venerable<br />

institution. And yet, the accumulation<br />

of years—25 under our belts, now<br />

into a 26th—has done nothing to dim<br />

the shine of the radical idea made real<br />

For those of us engaged in the mission of education, it is our<br />

great fortune to enjoy in autumn a second spring: a time not only<br />

of sowing but also of blossoming as we embark on another year<br />

of exploration and learning.<br />

by JHU President Steven Muller and<br />

Nanjing University President Kuang<br />

Yaming. If anything, as Sino-Western<br />

educational opportunities continue to<br />

expand and as prospective students<br />

have more and more options, the<br />

unique advantages of the HNC as a<br />

place where Chinese and international<br />

Year of<br />

Agriculture<br />

at<strong>SAIS</strong><br />

Hopkins<br />

Scholars at<br />

HNC<br />

Students are not the only<br />

ones seeking to understand<br />

the new global balance<br />

with Asia. Academics<br />

are also finding ways<br />

that China influences<br />

their fields of study. In this vein, the<br />

Hopkins-Nanjing Center is pleased<br />

to host the Hopkins Scholars Program<br />

in conjunction with the Foreign<br />

Policy Institute (FPI) at <strong>SAIS</strong>.<br />

Born of a recognized need for highquality<br />

individual and collaborative<br />

research between U.S.-based scholars<br />

and the rest of the world, this<br />

program will encourage comparative<br />

analyses and interdisciplinary projects<br />

in Nanjing.<br />

Two scholars will be selected by<br />

an academic committee to take up<br />

residence and pursue their topics<br />

of study at the HNC. This initiative<br />

will also bring two in-depth research<br />

projects and new discussions to<br />

the center, contributing to the<br />

intellectual stimulation of other<br />

scholars-in-residence, center faculty<br />

and students.<br />

Johns Hopkins University’s<br />

increased contribution to scholarly<br />

research at the HNC will create a<br />

pipeline for future faculty at the<br />

center, in collaboration with the FPI.<br />

This is an important step in informing<br />

the academic and practitioner<br />

communities of the resources that<br />

exist in Nanjing. The ultimate goal is<br />

to feature the center as a place to conduct<br />

research and to share expertise<br />

on and in China.<br />

The Hopkins Scholars Program<br />

was made possible by the university’s<br />

Benjamin and Rhea Yeung Center<br />

for Collaborative China Studies,<br />

which seeks to deepen understanding<br />

between the United States and China<br />

through collaboration among the<br />

various Johns Hopkins schools and<br />

academic programs. —Emily Kessler<br />

2011–2012 69

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