The Postgraduate Summer Schools provide research training in Chinese studies for PhD students and junior researchers from the UK, other EU member and associated states, China, Australia and North America.

The focus of the Postgraduate Research Summer School is on modern and contemporary Chinese history and analysis of Chinese society and politics—the most dynamic areas of academic interest of our age. PGSS aims to enhance research capacity on Chinese society, Chinese politics, and modern and contemporary Chinese history through training in research approaches, academic judgement, scholarly interaction and critique of postgraduate research. In this way, the Summer Schools help to facilitate future global collaboration and exchange in social science, and modern and contemporary Chinese history.

The formats for each of the Summer Schools are:

Approaches include discussion, reporting, semi-structured interview, qualitative and quantitative analyses, and oral and written feedback. Keynote speakers with different research profiles and interests function as both facilitators and trainers, interacting with participants in various ways.

The most recent Summer School was the International Summer School on China Studies held at Nanjing University, China from 4 - 19 July 2010. 

Please note, the School of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Nanjing University will hold a follow-up International Summer School at Nanjing University from 16 - 30 June 2011.

The theme of the event, which will be co-sponsored by the Harvard-Yenching Institute at Harvard University, the China Education Center at the University of Sydney, the Center for Modern China Studies at Nanjing University, and the Department of History at Nanjing University, will be 'Social Stratification and Mobility in China: Urban Migration and Growth of the Middle Class'. For more information, please click here.

The Postgraduate Summer Schools run as a series of annual sessions. Each Summer School covers a different theme:

Of these sites, Nanjing is historically significant as the birthplace of the Chinese Republic in 1911 and later China’s capital from 1927 to 1937 and from 1945 to 1949. Leeds and Oslo are established centres that have several decades of achievement in Chinese studies. Bristol represents the recent expanding interest in modern Chinese Studies.

The Postgraduate Summer Schools are organised by a steering committee made up of Chinese and European researchers. The first four Summer Schools were made possible through financing from the European Union Marie Curie Conferences and Training Courses, while the latter received funding from the Research Councils UK. The whole series was initiated and sustained with support from the Worldwide University Network (WUN).

For more information about PGSS, please contact us.