ASU popular among Chinese scholars

Chinese scholars are drawing on the opportunities at ASU for their studies, research and teaching experience. This academic year, ASU was the foreign destination for several visiting scholars who worked in such diverse fields as English, literature, education, language acquisition, environmental biotechnology and public administration. Some of the visiting Chinese scholars were:

• Wang Xiaolu, a professor of literature in the Chinese Department at Sichuan University, ASU's sister institution, taught a course on Chinese literature in ASU's Department of Languages with ASU professor Jewell Parker Rhodes, artistic director and Piper Endowed Chair of the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing.

• Su Dehua and Xu Jing, also from Sichuan University , are both English teachers from the university's College of Foreign Languages and Cultures. Chinese government scholarships allowed Su and Xu to study Latin in ASU's Department of Languages and Literatures, part of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

• Xia Siqing, a professor and vice dean in the School of Environmental Science and Engineering at Tongji University, spent six months conducting research on water quality with Bruce Rittmann, a professor of civil and environmental engineering who also is director of the Center for Environmental Biotechnology in the Biodesign Institute at ASU. The pair's research focused on how to protect the water quality of a man-made lake in the Shanghai region.

• Song Ying, an associate professor of English in the School of Foreign Languages at Tongji University, spent the fall semester at ASU sitting in on English and education classes to learn how they are taught. Song also heads the teaching and research office at Tongji University.

• Zhang Caibo, an associate professor of American literature at Shandong University, spent nearly a year in ASU's English department, focusing on American literature, notably African-American literature. Her goals were not only to gain knowledge of American literature course content, but also to observe how that content was taught.

• Zhang Jinfan, an associate professor of English in the School of Foreign Languages at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, participated in a seminar on educational language policies taught by Terrence Wiley, interim associate dean of ASU's Mary Lou Fulton College of Education. Zhang was particularly interested in distance learning and computer-assisted language learning.

• Zhu Xiaomei, a professor of English at Anhui University, also attended Wiley's seminar on educational language policies as part of her studies at ASU.

• Yu Jianxing, a professor and chair of the Department of Public Administration at Zhejiang University, is in the middle of a two-year visit at ASU's School of Public Affairs in the College of Public Programs. He has sat in on a methods class and one on public administration policy taught by ASU professor G. Zhyong Lan. Yu is at ASU to observe how we teach public administration and to take that knowledge back to his university.

Ten faculty members from Huazhong University of Science and Technology also visited ASU's School of Public Affairs this past fall for an introduction into American public policy administration. As part of their studies, they met with local government officials and saw first-hand how ASU's Decision Theater allows researchers to enhance their work through visualization representations.