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CAN CHINA LEAD?INTERVIEWS EVENT REVIEWSCAMPUS LIFE

Harvard Professor, William C Kirby, Harvard Business School answers

WITH PROFESSORS ALBAAMAYA-BURNS AND STEPHEN R. KELLY

EMPIRE & LANGUAGE WORKSHOPS AND MORE

KUN OPERA CLUB ANDOTHER STUDENT CLUBS

www.dukekunshan.edu.cn

DUKE KUNSHAN UNIVERSITY GLOBAL LEARNING SEMESTER JUNE 2015 1ST ISSUE

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Mary Brown Bullock, Ph.D.DKU Executive Vice Chancellor

Liu JingnanDKU Chancellor

When people set foot on the DKU campus, I hope they will feel the buzz, that there is something really excit-ing happening here.

DKU is an innovative model of world-class higher education em-bedded in China.

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DKU is committed to enrolling a highly talented, diverse, and in-ternational student body.

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The Duke Kunshan University (DKU) Global Learning Semes-ter offers a world class, in-

novative liberal arts education for highly qualified students from all background worldwide. The program is ideal for students who seek interac-tive classroom discussions, thrive on engagement with faculty and peers outside the classroom, and display a natural curiosity about the diver-sity of the world’s cultures. Students

choose from a variety of interdiscipli-nary courses that will spark curiosity and cultivate critical thinking skills.

This semester-long program, of-fered in both fall and spring semes-ter, features courses in global health, the humanities, social sciences, the physical and natural sciences, Eng-lish writing, and Chinese language in-struction. Classes are taught in Eng-lish by faculty from Duke University

and DKU. Students enjoy access to extensive online resources from the duke university libraries. Participants successfully completing the program will receive Duke University course credits that can be transferred to other degree-granting institutions. Furthermore, students who success-fully complete the program will be of-fered the opportunity to attend Duke University Summer Session in Dur-ham, North Carolina, USA.

DKU is committed to enrolling a high-ly talented, diverse, and international student body. Scholarship are avail-able to support these goals, and all applicants will automatically be con-sidered for scholarship. DKUSpark

Campus

EMERGE AS AN INTERNATIONAL CITIZEN WITH A BROAD INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE AND DEEP CHINA INSIGHTS.

Global Learning Semester Program:

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Opening Ceremony , GLS Spring 2015

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Empire & Language Workshop

On March 12, Scholars and students from Mainland China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan and the United States gath-ered at DKU for a trans-national, multi-lingual dialogue. The workshop which was conducted in English, Chi-nese, Japanese, and Korean, threw light upon past encounters in the realm of language and cultures and answered question on whether a re-newed and less contested future is possible to imagine.

DKU COLLOQUIUM SERIES

(Timeline: March 18- April 1, April 8-15)

“Mayan Culture in Mexico and Cen-tral America” by Allan Burns, Visiting Professor of DKU; Professor Emeri-tus, Department of Anthropology, University of Florida.

“A ONE Health Story: A One Health Solution” by Alba Amaya-Burns, Vis-iting Professor at DKU

“Good Neighbor, Bad Border” by Ste-phen R. Kelly, Visiting Professor of the Practice at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University

“Academic Uses of Drama and Theat-er Games” by Nan Mullenneaux, Pro-fessor of Duke University, and Philip Lance, fiction writer, actor, and play-wright

“Can China Lead? The World of Universities in the 21st Century?”

Lecturer: William C. Kirby, T. M. Chang Professor of China Studies at Harvard University

On March 20, Professor William Kir-by from Harvard University gave a speech on the topic of Chinese higher education to DKU students and facul-ty. Professor William Kirby is a Span-gler Family Professor of Business Ad-ministration at the Harvard Business School and Chairman of the Harvard China Fund. He has also served as Faculty Chair of the Harvard Center Shanghai since 2014. As a historian of modern China, Professor Kirby’s work examines China’s business, eco-nomic, and political development in an international context. DKUSpark

ACADEMIC EVENTS

REVIEWS

Urban and Imperial Fringes Seminar

In recent decades, a set of interre-lated urban phenomena have arisen with the rapid expansion of China’s metropolises. At the intersection of urban studies, aesthetic production, and political activism, this work-shop, held from March 13 to 14, in-vited scholars, artists, and activists to discuss issues relating to demoli-tion, relocation, transportation, trash disposal, and environmental impacts that are occuring in China’s cities and rural areas.

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Empire & Language Workshop

Speaker: William C. Kirby from Harvard University

“Can China Lead? The World of Universities in the 21st Century”

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Alba Amaya-Burns is Associate Profes-sor of Global Health

at Duke Kunshan Univer-sity. Before coming to DKU in 2014, she worked at the National Universi-ties of Nicaragua and El Salvador, Welcome Trust in London, USAID, the World Health Organiza-tion/PAHO, and the Uni-versity of Florida.

How did you learn about DKU?

I was working as a professor at the University of Florida and my hus-band, who retired from the Universi-ty of Florida, came to China to give a talk on anthropology. When he came back, he was fascinated about China, by the people and the great friend-ship they share. I decided to apply for a year in China. I found Duke Uni-versity was searching for faculty in China, and here I am!

How did you design your course for DKU?

I designed the course based on my teaching experience, more than 10 years in the United States and more than 20 years in other countries. For me, global health is a topic that

I have worked on not only as a pro-fessor but also as a practicing medi-cal doctor in Latin America. It took me two months to develop the cur-riculum. I designed my syllabus with the same description and content as I would have for Duke University, which reviewed and approved it. In that sense, we are offering the same content and same quality of training to our students here in China.

Are there any differences in the course that take China into account?

I added information and data about the current global health situation in China and Asia. Also, I knew that the students I will be teaching in Chi-na are undergrads and come from a variety of countries and that they

may not have a strong background in global health in North America, Afri-ca or other continents. So the course needs to have a global context but also go deeply into certain countries or subjects. One of the important things that I noticed is the differ-ent teaching dynamic. My classes in China are very participative and I am happy to say that my students are learning to do great presentations.

What is the significance of teaching a global health course in China?

It’s important for several reasons. First, it allows students to compare and learn from public health pro-grams both within and outside of Chi-na. China has wonderful programs and ideas that it can share with peo-ple from abroad. Second, Chinese are traveling abroad more often, and learning about global health helps prepare students and future health practitioners to prevent infectious diseases. Third, China has deep re-sources and can collaborate with oth-er nations who may have good health systems but lack resources. Finally, the course can be a step towards re-

PROFESSOR ALBA AMAYA-BURNSINTERVIEW WITH:

ducing the health disparity in China.

How do you find Kunshan and Duke Kunshan University?

Kunshan is a wonderful city. We feel very happy here, we feel at home, and have done several cultural ac-tivities in Kunshan and beyond. At DKU’s beautiful campus, we feel like pioneers of a new university. On a professional level, we’re extremely happy to prepare Chinese students and students from around the world to be leaders in global health in their own countries.

What is the most memorable experience you have had at DKU?

Seeing my students propose real so-lutions to health problems. Not only in the area of health care, or infec-tious disease or chronic health prob-lems, but also in global health eth-ics. I feel my students will become leaders because they are prepared to advocate for disadvantaged com-munities. I am so happy to see their progress. DKUSpark

I designed the course based on my teaching experience, more than 10 years in the United States and more than 20 years in other countries. For me, global health is a topic that I have worked on not only as a professor but also as a practicing medical doctor in Latin America.

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Professor Alba in class with DKU students

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Stephen R. Kelly is a former U.S. diplomat and current visiting

professor of the practice at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke Uni-versity, and a professor this semester at Duke Kun-shan University, teaching a course on Global Energy.

How do you find Kunshan and Duke Kunshan University?

I have the feeling that Kunshan is much more interesting than we know. There is a lot to discover here. For ex-ample, the trip we took to Bachang town, which is not that far away from here, was really interesting. I suspect that there are many more things like that I would discover if I was going to be here longer.

As for DKU, I like the campus. The academic buildings and campus de-sign are very impressive. Secondly, the global energy course is differ-ent from what I teach to graduate students in the public policy school. It’s also a different student body: 13 Chinese, 3 Indian. I find that mix adds a whole new dimension. The course I teach on energy would be interest-ing in the China connection. Indepen-dently of that, at the Sanford School at Duke, every spring, they bring in Chinese officials for leadership and management training. They are on

campus for about three months and it’s a fairly intensive program. Faculty members deliver lectures on various topics; I talk about energy security. For that training, I did some research about China and began looking at various energy security questions. Then I talked to the DKU people on campus and asked why not teach a course on energy in China? The way we looked at it was, we spent all those years overseas going from country to country and we thought this is going out on a diplomatic assignment.

How do you prepare and teach your course at DKU?

I started thinking about the course, gathering materials and planning in November or December. I wanted to have guest speakers, so I had to be-gin arranging that in advance. Plan-ning a visit to the consulate took a lot of time as well. Guest speakers are a big part of the class because, once you’ve done the reading and have ac-

PROFESSOR STEPHEN R. KELLYINTERVIEW WITH:

quired a base, the speakers can pro-vide some perspective. I look at my-self as a conductor of an orchestra, bringing in different pieces from oil shockwave to guest speakers to Dan-iel Yergin, author of the prize. I want students to have a total experience, and that includes hearing different people offer different perspectives about energy. So, I did have a chance to think on how I would change the course for people whose English was not as good as the English of the peo-ple at Duke, but still have them pro-duce professional quality product. I think that worked pretty well. Read-

ing the final memo now, I am pretty happy, especially watching the brief-ing. I think it worked out okay.

What impressions have you had of your Chinese students?

They are very hard working. I don’t want to say that American students are not hard working but it’s different -- Chinese students are disciplined. They have adjusted to the teaching style well, and participate in discus-sions. Sometimes I actually have to

I look at myself as a conductor of an orchestra, bringing in different piec-es…I want students to have a total experience and that includes hear-ing different people offer different perspective about energy.

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“tell students to stop! That’s good, because I was worried the opposite might happen. but my students have quickly made the transition. DKUSpark

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Students of Global Energy Class

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Suzhou Trip Graduate / Undergraduate Mixer

Class of Medical Anthropology

Class of Citizenship and Globalization Class of Inter-ethnic Intimacies

Class of Writing Across Cultures

Orientation

Bacheng Trip

Bacheng Trip

Celebration of Holi Festival

Orientation

Celebration of Holi Festival

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Meredith Li, a sen-ior at Sichuan Uni-versity, attended

DKU’s Global Learning Semester in fall 2014. She is a passionate student of English, and is motivated to create an educational environment for effective and sustainable language learning in China. In fall 2015, she’ll begin study-ing for a master’s degree in education at the Uni-versity of Oxford.

I have always appreciated people’s strong desire to become multilingual and have sympathy for their frustra-tion at a lack of teaching resources to help them achieve that goal. The de-sire to help provide these resources has made me want to be a teacher.

Duke Kunshan University provided me with help in realizing my own dream. The professors at DKU are extraordinary teachers and leaders in their fields. On top of that, smaller class sizes, guest lecturers, live tel-econferences with experts, and field trips make studying in DKU an unpar-alleled experience. Faculty mentors, particularly Professors Vicki Russell

and Andrew Byers, offered me help-ful suggestions on preparing for graduate school, and Edie Allen, my English-as-a-foreign-languag instruc-tor, gave me useful advice in pursuing meaningful professions. Even though I faced strong pressure and many be-wildering choices in my graduation year, I’ll always look back on my time at DKU as a memorable journey.

What I learned at DKU goes far be-yond my personal academic improve-ment. DKU contributed to shaping my future path. My time at DKU greatly encouraged me to pursue teaching, inspiring me to utilize and integrate global educational resources in my work and study. As part of Professor Vicki Russell’s writing seminar, we “student-teachers” went to the Cana-dian International School in Kunshan to teach an art class for 3rd and 4th graders. I was given an opportunity to experiment with different teach-ing methods on different groups of students, and this cross-cultural ex-change was the very essence of my semester at DKU.

I also began to realize how DKU has shaped my academic choices. My home university ranks among the top 10 nationwide, and I was satisfied with my academic performance. However, I was forced out of this comfort zone when I came to DKU, where other students are the best in their fields. The students I met here were not only academically outstanding but humble, and at the same time had big dreams and clear goals. I used to be the model for my classmates, but at DKU I was surrounded by new models. My roommate Cathy was admitted to a prestigious university through her own hard work. I used to think that academic advisor was just a title. At my home university, I

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I was really lucky to participate in the Global Learning Semester at DKU. The professors came from

Duke University and were enthusias-tic about teaching and communicat-ing with every student. In addition, each student was assigned an ad-visor, and mine provided generous help and guidance. The small class size allowed us to have open discus-sions without worrying about find-ing a “correct” answer, and brought in different voices and perspectives. My time at DKU really led me to be-gin practicing critical thinking.

DKU doesn’t tell you who you can be and what future you can reach for -- it shows you. The

knowledge of an all-star faculty. Fel-low students from around the world. Opportunities to hear, share and cre-ate new stories. A time to remember. Those are what make the semester here a good choice. You don’t “come” to DKU. You meet it. The rest of the conversation depends on you. Good luck!

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met my advisor on the first day and never saw her again. DKU showed me that advisors really help you, and are there to communicate with you any-time, even if it’s just over a game of table tennis.

I am grateful for the opportunity to be one of the pioneering members of DKU’s Global Learning Semester pro-gram. This fall, as I head into a new journey, I’ll bring the knowledge and experience of DKU with me as I con-tinue to pursue my dream. DKUSpark

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DKU Kun Opera Club was es-tablished in February 2015 with support of Kunshan

Culture and Arts Center and DKU Development Office. It offers a platform for DKU students, fac-ulty, and staff to learn and ap-preciate the Kunshan-style Chi-nese opera. Professor Don Snow serves currently as the club’s fac-ulty advisor.

Since its establishment, DKU Kun Opera Club has held various ex-citing activities. Club members are invited to biweekly live per-

Kun Opera Clubformances at Culture and Arts Center as well as an excursion to Bacheng where Kun Opera was first originated. The club fre-quently offers lectures and per-formance lessons to help DKU community learn more about singing, costumes, and the elo-quent body language of the clas-sical opera. DKUSpark

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DKU International Association is a student organization promoting multiculturalism at DKU through campus-wide events that involve students, faculty, and the Kunshan community.

Green Leaves is student organization that promotes environmental protection and a sustainable way of life on DKU’s campus.

DKU Varsity is a club for students to practice sport and exercise with instruction, organized recreation, and/or competition.

Ideas Matter holds weekly meetings on topics related to culture, politics, social, and philosophical issues.

Since its establishment, the Kun Opera Club has held a number of activities. Students have been invited to several Kunshan-style opera performances at the Poly Theater.

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On April 20th, DKU hosted a speech by Professor William C Kirby, who serves as Chairman

of the  Harvard  China Fund and as Faculty Chair of the  Harvard  Center Shanghai since 2014 . The talk gen-erated much hype among DKU stu-dents, faculty, and staff alike due to the subject matter and stature of the presenter, which ensured a full house on a lazy early evening.

Professor Kirby started the talk by presenting his new book, “Can Chi-na Lead?” The book is a collection of 30 Harvard Business School case studies on Chinese and foreign com-panies doing business in this region and explores the various challenges that the Chinese business landscape continues to face. The speaker sug-gested the possibility of Chinese uni-versity becoming dominant in the 21st century.

Professor Kirby spoke about the evo-lution of the modern day university system of China. The Chinese edu-cation system has a rich legacy and was expected to lead by the 20th century itself but the unstable politi-cal atmosphere at that time slowed the growth Chinese University sys-tem. Many famous Universities like Tsinghua and Peking University were founded years ago or existed under a different name for a long period of time.

These universities served as gate-ways for domestic students to go abroad to pursue further studies. The speaker told that this century will be led by Chinese universities just like first half of the 20th century which belonged to the German universities.

The speaker also highlighted how Si-no-foreign joint-venture universities will be the leaders in this next phase and enumerated a number of univer-sities which just opened their China campus. Professor Kirby saved the best for the last by pointing how DKU was the most ambitious joint venture yet and was expected to be a unique model in the coming few years. On hearing this, several audience mem-bers’ chest swelled with pride.

Finally, the talk concluded with a Q&A session which saw many inter-esting questions being volleyed to the speaker. One audience member questioned on why China should adopt a foreign education system to progress? To this, the speaker smart-ly pointed out that every idea in this world is borrowed and that necessar-ily isn’t a bad thing. He also added that the idea of ‘Communism’ which is dear to China was also borrowed. DKUSpark

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The talk generated much hype among DKU students, faculty, and staff alike due to the subject matter and stat-ure of the presenter, which ensured a full house on a lazy early evening.

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DKU SPARKMeet the Newsletter Team:Rui Li – Admissions OfficeKirithigaa K.- Student, GLS Spring’15Yang Jingqi - Student, GLS Spring’15Sabarish Shankar- Student, GLS Spring’15

ISSUE ONE

gls@dku.edu.cn