Required Courses

The China Center faculty currently offer courses each semester in the following supported Areas of Concentration: Peace, Conflict and Reconciliation; Arts and Culture; and Global Health and Healing. Those courses in these Areas of Concentrations emphasize the importance of understanding the local host culture in a global and cross-cultural context.
First semester students at the China Center must enroll in and successfully complete the 3-credit Modern Chinese HistoryArea Studies course, the 3 credit Yearly Seminar, the linked 2-credit Writing Workshop and the 4-credit Mandarin Chinese course for a total of 12 required credits. These students may take other courses and/or elective courses for a total of 16 credits each semester. Students who had submitted a successful portfolio of learning in advance of the last day of the previous semester may petition the Dean to take up to 18 credits by sending an email petition to the Assistant Director of Records and Admissions before the end of the third week of classes.
Fulltime first semester students may fulfill up to 4 of the 6 elective credits through an independent study project based on library research or internship that does not require a foundation in Chinese language and culture. More than 4 credits of independent study may be arranged first semester only by linking a one or two-credit directed independent study project to one or two of the required courses, but in such cases the subject of the independent study should be closely related to the content and learning goals of each course. In rare circumstances new students with sufficient linguistic or cultural background may petition the Academic Director to carryout up to a 4-credit independent study project based on fieldwork, but this option is typically reserved for continuing students who have completed the requisite language course and other courses in the first semester.
In addition to the above mentioned 12-credit core requirement, junior students will be required to complete a 3 credit Junior Research Seminar in the first semester, in addition to a 4 to 6 credit Junior Research Project in the second semester, typically consecutively in the fall and spring semesters. The Junior Research Seminar is offered in the fall semester only, but first semester junior students arriving in spring semester may complete this requirement through an equivalent tutorial with her or his Faculty Advisor.
There are no required courses for second semester students and first semester visiting students, other than the above mentioned junior requirements for Global College students, but only in rare circumstances are students given permission to conduct a combination of independent study projects for more than a total of 8 credits, and all students are expected to continue Chinese language study each semester. Visiting students and third and fourth semester Global College students who have already taken all required courses may take intensive Mandarin Chinese for 9 credits in fall and 6 credits in spring.


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