March 3, 2021
Dear Friends,
During this last most unusual year, our goal at Center for Chinese Studies was to provide community for
scholars and students working in relative isolation during the pandemic, and to support our newer
faculty and graduate students at this sensitive moment in their careers. We thank you for being a part
of our wonderful community, which has expanded during the pandemic to include scholars working in
other parts of the United States as well as Asia.
Thanks to the devotion of our staff, Xiaojie Ma and Skye van Valkenburgh, we have been able to run
weekly seminars for the public via Zoom. The attendance at these seminars has far exceeded the
audience that we could have accommodated in person– Sarah Allen’s recent talk on “Yin Yang and Qi,”
Matthew Sommer’s talk on “Transgender in Imperial China,” and journalist Austin Ramzy’s talk on Hong
Kong in the age of the new national security law all drew well over 150 attendees. Because these
webinars have been so successful, we hope to offer a mixture of formats, both in-person and via
webinar, in the fall.
We are thrilled that several new faculty whose work engages with Chinese Studies have joined us on
campus: Lester Hu in Music, Jun Hu in History of Art, and Ryan Brutger in Political Science. Part of the
work of the Center is to support faculty research. During the pandemic, we have focused resources on
assistant and associate professors, or “young career” faculty.
In other news, several of our graduate students in Chinese Studies have won tenure-track positions and
post-docs in this very difficult job market. When the pandemic hit last March, we pivoted towards
assisting our graduate students financially, knowing the strain that disrupted plans might put on their
Please consider a gift to the Center for Chinese Studies that will help us support young career faculty
and graduate students. We look forward to the day when we can once more gather in person.
All best wishes,
Sophie Volpp
Chair, Center for Chinese Studies