Jul 30 2015
Published by
NYU Shanghai
The International Summer Graduate School of “Contemporary Urbanization and Social Governance”, co-sponsored by NYU-ECNU Institute for Social Development at NYU Shanghai (the Institute) and Department of Sociology at School of Social Development at East Normal China University (ECNU), was held from July 14 – 26, 2015 at ECNU Minhang Campus. Well-regarded professors, both from China and the United States, who have made outstanding contributions to their respective areas, were invited to teach and over 100 graduate students from 40 universities throughout the world were selected to attend.
Dr. Wen-Jui Han and Dr. Jun Wen, the Co-Directors of the Institute, Dr. Ruijun Wu, Dean of School of Social Development at ECNU, Dr. Lynn Videka, Dean of Silver School of Social Work at NYU, and Dr. Xiangping Li, Director of Department of Sociology of ECNU attended the opening ceremony of the Summer School. Dean Wu delivered the Opening Remarks, introducing the history and research achievements of Sociology at ECNU. Dean Videka pointed out that this Summer School was the testimony of the important and successful collaboration between the U.S. and China universities. Choosing “urbanization and social governance” as the major theme of learning and discussion also highlights the importance of this issue in guiding the development of sociology and social development in China for years to come.
Dr. Han briefly reviewed the mission and goals of the Institute, as well as the soon-to-launch Global MSW program in Shanghai and in New York City this Fall 2015, as well as the launch of the dual Ph.D. degree between NYU Silver School of Social Work and ECNU SSD.
Dr. Jun Wen gave the first course on July 15, speaking about “Major Challenges in Contemporary Urbanization and Management in China.” Using Shanghai as the example and providing rich data and visual documentation, Dr. Wen pointed out the major issues and challenges in urban construction and management in China from multi perspectives and provided several important questions to inform policy and practice for years to come.
On the second day of the summer course, Dr. Videka talked about the “Child Welfare Development in the United States”, particularly focusing on child maltreatment as a global issue. Dr. Videka introduced how the United States implements policy and services to protect children and improve child welfare. Furthermore, she also applied some local data of child maltreatment in China to inspire and encourage participants to think about how to develop policies to protect children in China. Dr. Han delivered a speech on “Poverty and Inequality”, presenting various data to explain the current situation of poverty and inequality using the United States as a case example. She also discussed how we could learn experiences from the United States and other countries such as United Kingdom to help with policy making in China to address poverty and inequality issues. By providing high-level academic lectures, filed observation for urban governance and interactive discussion among students, the Summer School successfully built a platform to motivate students and enhance the development of sociology.