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Introduction of Major Institutions
The Institute for Global History ofBeijing Foreign Studies University
CHU Lijuan*

The Institute for Global History (IGH) is an academic entity establishedin 2014 at the Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU). Our faculty andstaff are composed of six researchers and teachers, two foreign professors andtwo supporting staff members. We offer a number of cultural and history
centered courses to help students fulfill the general education requirements ofthe BFSU. We also prepare students for a career in various professional
research fields through our undergraduate, graduate, doctoral and postdoctoral
programs.
The Institute focuses on the study of world history since the Age ofDiscovery and Chinese history since the modern period. With a global
perspective, we seek to understand history from interactions and emphasize
the interconnectivity and interrelationships of all the entities involved. TheAge of Discovery witnessed the surge of globalization, and the developmentof national history is also characterized by this trend. Therefore, it is necessary for us to transcend the traditional disciplinary boundary between Chinese
History and World History, and to take a holistic approach as well as a global
view in the studies of Chinese history and other national histories. In light of
this, we established the “Research Center for the History of Ideas” and the“Research Center for Knowledge Transfer and Scholarly Exchange” in May
2017. Our aim is to investigate how China interacted with the world andthereafter facilitated the evolution from a pre-modern society to a modernizedcountry by tracking the history of certain ideas, the exposure and influence ofthe overseas Chinese students in certain periods and the Eurasian transfer ofknowledge.

* CHU Lijuan 褚麗娟 is lecturer of the School of History, Beijing Foreign Studies
University.

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To be specific, the Research Center for the History of Ideas deals withconcepts used to express modern ideas which appeared after the Age ofEnlightenment in the west, which, although bear similar forms in ancient
Chinese classics, have different meanings after being borrowed in Japan andthen returned to China. These concepts helped to construct a modern China invarious aspects such as national institutions, social organizations, culturalcommunications and social life etc.
The work of the Research Center for Knowledge Transfer and Scholarly
Exchange is centered on the study of overseas Chinese students from thelatter half of the 19th century onwards. Through analysis of the archives anddocuments of these students, we aim to trace their academic linage andthereby reveal and better understand the routes of knowledge transfer
between China and the West, as well as between China and Japan.
Our goal is to break down the limitations resulting from a narrow fieldof vision. The institute also expands its research agendas to include fields likethe history of world trade, immigration, missionary activity, language contact,science and technology, diseases, ideas, and translations etc.
Since its establishment, the institute has hosted nearly 20 conferences,most of them international, such as “The 9th Annual Meeting of the Society
for Cultural Interaction in East Asia”, “Symposium on Advanced Studies ofChinese and German Humanities”, “Kumā rajīva and Knowledge Transfer inEastern Asia”.
The institute has also established formal agreements with over 50

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universities from 29 countries and regions, including databases, publications,conferences, lectures, student exchanges etc. Furthermore, the institute hasdeveloped its own multi-language databases and a literature center of “GlobalHistory Studies”. We have also set up “A Database of Scholarly Exchanges in
the Twentieth Century” in cooperation with the Friedrich-Alexander
University Erlangen-Nürnberg in Germany.
We are now editing or co-editing four journals (two in German): Global
History and China, Seeking, minina sinica, Orientierungen. We also edited orfund four scholarly book series and translated works, including Cambridge
Concise History, Studies of Global History & East Asia Cultural Interaction,
Complete Edition of Karl Jaspers (Karl Jaspers Gesamtausgabe), Series on
Global History and China.
From 2015 to 2017, the Institute has presented a lecture series titled“Global History and China”. The range of topics includes the discipline ofglobal history and its relevance to the study and understanding of China. The
48 lectures so far were delivered by celebrated scholars such as Alfons
Labisch, Ralph Kauz, Jörn Rüsen, Aktita Shigeru, James Lee, Li Bozhong,Shen Guowei, Liu Xincheng and others from China and abroad.
Based on the institute, we established the History School of BFSU onDecember 10, 2017. Our future research will focus on cross-cultural interactions
and transnational correlations between China and other civilizations. For more
information, please visit our website: http://www.globalhistory.cn/index.htm.

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