Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences welcomes new cohort of visiting scholars

Peking: As autumn draws on, the Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences (IHSS) welcomed a new cohort of visiting scholars in the fall semester of 2020. A total of 11 scholars from universities and institutes including Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Dunhuang Academy (DHA), Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU), and Jinan University (JNU), will conduct research and exchanges in the following three months at Peking University. On the afternoon of September 16, the welcome event was held at Jingyuan Courtyard No.2. The 11 visiting scholars of this semester, representatives of past visiting scholars, members of IHSS council, and the team of administrative assistants attended the meeting. Yang Hongbo, associate director of IHSS, hosted the meeting.

IHSS Director Deng Xiaonan extended a warm welcome to the participants. She said that, with the pandemic abating, the arrival of scholars and the re-launch of academic activities refreshed IHSS. This era of great changes also poses new challenges to the IHSS. IHSS will strive to create a comfortable environment for the scholars, so that they can take the time to carry out research and focus on creative work.

Deng Xiaonan

Qu Jingdong, executive associate director of IHSS, introduced the exploration and efforts IHSS has made in the past four years. The institute has always clung to its ethos of “inquire and inspire” and is dedicated to providing an open and inclusive platform for scholars. Centering on the core theme of “Civilization: China and the World,” as well as five clusters of topics, the participants had in-depth discussions across disciplines.

Two visiting scholars from previous cohorts, Professor Jing Yuejin from the Department of Political Science, School of Social Science, Tsinghua University, and Professor Huang Yingying from the School of Sociology and Population Studies, Renmin University of China, shared their memorable experiences at IHSS.

The new visiting scholars also gave speeches about their research fields and academic interests. Professor Han Qi from the School of Humanities, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, reviewed his journey from engineering to the study of the history of science and expressed his willingness to explore further and broaden his horizons.

Qiu Jingjia from the School of History, Renmin University of China, talked about the training of documentary research he received when studying at Peking University. The tradition of digging deep into archives and documents has had profound impact on his later research. Other visiting scholars also talked about their expectations and plans in IHSS.