Location:

Shanghai, China

Program Type:

Study Abroad

Degree Level:

Undergraduate

Term:

Summer

Program Overview

Program Description:

This course will offer students an intensive but varied two-week program with lectures, workshops, and excursions. Students are expected to actively participate in the workshops, prepare a (group) presentation and write a paper. The mode of instruction consists of class lectures, guest lectures by leading academics and foreign diplomats in Shanghai, visits to museums and excursions to historic Shanghai. This course has been designed for students of the social sciences, including economics and business, political sciences, European studies, history, culture studies and sociology, the sciences and engineering at senior undergraduate level with an interest in culture, society and politics. A wide range of interests will help, but no specific expertise is required. This course is taught by Prof. dr. Hans Bertens. Professor Bertens is Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at Utrecht University, The Netherlands. His books include The Idea of the Postmodern: A History (London and New York: Routledge, 1995), Literary Theory: The Basics (London and New York: Routledge, 2000; 3rd rev. ed. 2013), Contemporary American Crime Fiction (Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2001; with Theo D’haen), American Literature: A History (London and New York: Routledge, 2013; with Theo D’haen).

This course is taught at Fudan University (Shanghai, China) as part of the China Europe International Summer School (CEISS). Using historical, cultural, and sociological documents and data, this course examines the dominant self-perception of what are arguably the three most important global players, the United States, the European Union, and the People’s Republic of China. The course explores how the rather different ways they think and define themselves and their respective missions, give rise to socio-cultural assumptions that play a formative role in both domestic and foreign policy and shape each player’s internal debates and sensitivities. This course thus provides students with the historical and theoretical background on European, Chinese and American thinking needed to understand these players’ perspective on the rise of Asia and, in particular, the rise of China. Students will examine and discuss current developments in China – such as China’s changing role in international organizations, China’s engagement with Africa, and China’s reliance on a non-Western model of governance – as well as the often conflicted Euro-American responses to these developments.

Setting Description:

Fudan University is the most prestigious, research-oriented university in Shanghai, and belongs to China’s top-3 universities. In the QS ranking of world universities for 2014/2015, Fudan University is ranked 71st worldwide, and 3rd overall among Chinese universities. Fudan is a member of Universitas 21, an association of leading research-oriented universities worldwide. There are 30.000 students at Fudan, including 5.000 international students. CEISS is a collaboration between six of the leading universities in China and Europe: Fudan University (China), Utrecht University (Netherlands), Freie Universität Berlin (Germany), LUISS Business School (Rome), Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (Milan) and the University of Copenhagen (Denmark) and Edvance Education International (China). CEISS offers summer courses that explore the world's main economic, social and political trends and the way they impact on the economies and societies of Europe and China.

Cost:

1.850 USD (course fees + course materials + housing + excursions + social programme)