The Wisconsin China Initiative
Programs

 

Research and Teaching

The Center for East Asian Studies:
The Center for East Asian Studies is a federally funded National Resource Center and one of the premier centers for teaching the languages and civilizations of East Asia. The Center brings together 72 core and associate faculty members who teach some 240 undergraduate and graduate courses through 30 departments in six schools and colleges. The Center has long offered a BA in East Asian Studies, a certificate for undergraduates and Ph.D. minor. A major focus of the center is teacher training as well as outreach to the state and beyond. 

 

Language instruction, in the Department of East Asian Languages and Literature includes all levels of Chinese.


Specific activities of CEAS include: 

  • A graduate certificate and linked summer institute offering Chinese language and area studies courses for professional and terminal master’s students in law, business, public policy.

  • In collaboration with the Center for International Business (CIBER) and the Language Institute, an executive education opportunity related to doing business with China, including an online practical Chinese language course for working professionals.

  • A new course for pre-service Education School students and K-16 teachers (“Understanding 21st-Century China”) in Summer 2007, funded by a New and Innovative Course grant from the Division of Continuing Studies.

  • An interdisciplinary group of faculty is conducting research on “Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Development in Yunnan Province” through a multi-year IGERT grant from the National Science Foundation. Through the project, graduate students are trained in Chinese and sent to Yunnan for field work in connection with their research project.

  • The Center for Global Health and faculty from the Department of Family Medicine are collaborating with the Capital University of Medical Science and Fuxing Hospital in Beijing to create a family medicine training program in China.

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS)

  • Sino-US Dairy Center -- In 2005, China Agriculture University (CAU) and UW-Madison joined together to form the Sino-US Dairy Center to promote research, development, and trade in the dairy industries of both countries.  The Center's first seminar drew over 150 dairy professionals from industry and academia. Numerous companies provided commercial exhibitions.  Faculty from UW-Madison and CAU offered presentations and led farm visits.  Subsequent seminars saw an increased attendance and an expansion of the exhibition space provided to U.S. and Chinese firms.

  • China Center for Economic Research (CCER) at Peking University – Two PhD students from CCER have conducted collaborative research at UW-Madison on the Chinese economy, with supervision of faculty in the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics.

  • Other Initiatives

College of Engineering

The Law School

The East Asian Legal Studies Center, established in 1990, continues the Law School's long history of involvement in international and comparative law with a variety of programs and activities related to the people and academic institutions of East and Southeast Asia. The Center formalizes and increases the Law School's academic interaction with universities, government ministries, and the private sector

School of Business in China

The School of Business has had an exchange program with the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology since 1998-1999 with a total exchange of nearly 40 students each way for several years. The School has had a faculty- led summer study tour to China for about ten years, the last few in cooperation with CALS. The program visits Shanghai hosted by the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Yunnan province with host Kunming Institute of Zoology, Yangzhou with host Yangzhou University and Beijing with host University of International Business and Economics (UIBE). In return, UW-Madison hosts several faculty from UIBE for a semester of research within the UW-Madison School of Business. The Executive MBA program traveled to China in March 2006 for a faculty led tour in Shanghai and Beijing.

University of Wisconsin Libraries

The East Asian Collection supports the teaching, research, and outreach missions of the university by providing access to and delivery of information from and related to East Asia.

 

The Library’s East Asian Digital Collection includes historical images that present a visual archive of 20th century East Asian cultural heritage. Currently, the collection consists of images that document early 20th century China including the the Sino-Japanese Conflict (1937-1945), a visual history of Buddhist practices and temples in China, and other images of daily life in both rural and urban China. The completed project will be a valuable resource for research into this region and its history.

Study Abroad

 

International Academic Programs:

  • Beijing, China: This University of California system program is open to students from the University of Michigan and UW-Madison. Students can study at Peking University for the academic year; at Beijing Normal University they can choose the fall or academic year option.

  • Beijing, China Feng Shui International Seminar: This four-week summer course, led by a UW-Madison professor, examines how the physical environment affects human behavior with special attention to the application of Feng Shui. Twenty students participated in 2005-06.

  • Tianjin, China: This is an intensive 10-week summer language program under which students take courses in Chinese language and culture at Nankai University. In 2005-2006, over 30 students were enrolled.

Other Campus Programs: