The Center for Balkan Studies of NUAA successfully held the 2020 Virtual National Forum on International and Area Studies

On June 17, 2020, the Center for Balkan Studies of NUAA successfully hosted the 2020 Virtual National Forum on International and Area Studies. Over 300 experts, scholars, faculty members and students from the College and other major universities attended the online forum.

Prof. Fan Xiangtao, head of the College of Foreign Languages, presided over the opening ceremony followed by two speeches made respectively by Mr. Yuan Zonghu, Director of the Department of Scientific Research of NUAA, and Luo Lin, Director of IASCMOE Secretariat.

This forum was significant in that it brought together some leading experts in the research field—Luo Lin, Li Chenyang, Zhong Zhixiang, Jiang Jingkui, Xu Liping, Liang Zhanjun, Ding Long, Sun Xiaomeng and Wen Bing, etc. In their reports, the experts reviewed the efforts in international and area studies at home and abroad. In light of China’s studies on South Asia, Southeast Asia and the Balkans, as well as the Euro-American experience of establishing think tanks, the experts proposed the establishment of disciplinary system, academic system and personnel training patterns for international and area studies with Chinese characteristics in the background of new liberal arts in the new era, as well as the relationship between international and area studies and the academic shift in foreign language teaching. Prof. Xu Yizhong, Vice President of CFL, hosted the forum in which scholars and students exchanged ideas on the theories, methods and practices of the research.

Prof. Zhang Lixin, director of the Center, presided over the closing ceremony. Researcher Wen Bing, Executive Director of IASCMOE Secretariat, mapped out the disciplinary system, key issues, defining features, and planning issues of international and area studies in universities.

This forum has shed some light on the direction of, theoretical support for and practical approaches to promoting the disciplinary construction, and the value of the counsel, by the many research centers throughout China in the context of new liberal arts in the new era.