2015 Awards

Conference: The Arnold Arboretum in China : Photographic Exhibition and Botanical

William (Ned) Friedman (Faculty of Arts and Sciences -Organismic and Evolutionary Biology)

$10K

William (Ned) Friedman (FAS-Organismic and Evolutionary Biology) and his collaborators will organize a botanical symposium featuring a conference and photographic exhibition at the Harvard Center Shanghai in Spring 2015. Building on E. H. Wilson’s pioneering research on China’s endemic flora in collaboration with Chinese plant scientists during the beginning of the 20th century, this conference will examine how plant exploration and international botanical cooperation continue to contribute in meaningful ways to a range of contemporary issues confronting the global community–including declining biodiversity, environmental degradation, habitat loss, and conservation. The Arnold Arboretum conference will be scheduled to coincide with the release of a documentary titled “Chinese Wilson” in December 2015 on China’s CCTV documentary channel 9, which traces E. H. Wilson’s survey of flora native to temperate China and the tremendous changes to China’s landscape over the past century. With the airing of the Wilson documentary as a backdrop, the seminar and exhibition mounted by the Arnold Arboretum at the Harvard Center in Shanghai will offer participants an expanded view of the Arboretum’s historical work in China, with an emphasis on its continued value and importance to plant science and conservation.

Harvard‐China Forum on Arabic and Islamic Studies

Ali Asani (Faculty of Arts and Sciences-Indo-Muslim and Islamic Religion and Cultures)

$40K

Ali Asani (FAS-Indo-Muslim and Islamic Religion and Cultures) and his colleagues will convene distinguished scholars of Islamic and Arabic studies from Harvard and universities across China to discuss how the training of Chinese and Western scholars in this field, through diverse pedagogical methods and distinct social, cultural, and educational settings, have greatly influenced the teaching of Islam in a post-secondary environment in their respective countries. This two-day conference aims to expand the study of Muslim communities beyond the Middle East by calling attention to the marginalized position of Chinese Islamic studies in Western academia and encouraging the study of Chinese expressions of Islam.

Conference: The Chinese Legal Profession in the Age of Globalization

David Wilkins (Harvard Law School)

$40K

David Wilkins (HLS) and his collaborators will organize a two-day conference at the Harvard Center Shanghai in the summer of 2015 as part of a larger research collaborative entitled Globalization, Lawyers, and Emerging Economies (GLEE). A multinational and multidisciplinary team consisting of more than 50 scholars, GLEE’s research explores how globalization is transforming the market for legal services in China, India and Brazil, and how these changes are in turn potentially reshaping institutions, norms, and practices within these emerging powers and in the institutions of global governance more generally. By presenting the results of GLEE’s research, the conference will address the relevance of recent changes in the legal profession in China for the country’s economic, political, social, and cultural development. The conference will be coordinated by the Harvard Law School Center of the Legal Profession with assistance from the Harvard East Asian Legal Studies program, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, KoGuan Law School and the East Asian Legal Studies Center at the University of Wisconsin Law School.

Conference: Developing Child Mental Health Capacity in China: Innovation and Sustainability

Myron Belfer (Harvard Medical School)

$40K

Myron Belfer (HMS) and his collaborators will hold a three-day conference at the Harvard Center Shanghai to showcase developments in school-based mental health in Shanghai and to inform key stakeholders of the potential derived from adopting further innovation in education and mental health service delivery. In recognition of the adverse psychological impact of the current educational system in China and on families in today’s evolving society, children’s mental health has risen in the past two years to a place of prominence in the Chinese government’s regional and central planning. By featuring the efforts and advances in children’s mental health in Shanghai, this conference will consolidate many streams of knowledge and concern, and have a significant impact on policy and program development in China.