Friends World Program of Long Island University

Curriculum

Independent Study

Students with sufficient preparation may design one or two Independent Study Projects (ISP), Service Learning Projects, or internships, within certain cultural and linguistic boundaries, and in consultation with their Faculty Advisor and/or Field Advisor. First semester students may not take more than a total of four credits and second semester students may not take more than a total of eight credits of independent study credit without permission from their Faculty Advisor and the support of the Academic Director.

No single independent study should be larger than four credits except for the Junior Research Project. First semester student independent study projects should be based on library research or an internship that does not require Chinese linguistic or cultural background. Students are expected to write approximately 2,500 words (10 pages) per independent study credit. Students may link any independent study project or internship to the Writing Workshop for an additional credit, and students may elect to give a professional oral presentation of a four-credit independent study project at the end of the semester under faculty guidance for an additional credit.

Most new students are too busy in the fall semester to conduct more than two credits of independent work, and since not all field advisors speak fluent English, most larger independent projects are carried out in the spring semester, or during a student's third semester, after students have completed the required core curriculum and have the requisite foundation in Chinese language.

Students may elect to give a professional oral presentation of a four-credit independent study project at the end of the semester under faculty guidance for an additional credit. For more information, see the Oral Presentation page of this website.

Independent Study Project

GCHI 290-299, GCHI 390-399, GCHI 490-499
Credits: Two to four

Students may design a guided independent study project (ISP) with her or his faculty advisor and/or field advisor. Field advisors are professionals and specialists who can offer students more in-depth study of a chosen field through an ISP or specially arranged lectures and courses, such as the English-language course on Traditional Chinese Massage offered at the Zhejiang Traditional Chinese Medicine College. Students have conducted a wide range of ISP projects in recent semesters, including studies in the following subjects:

• Psychology: An Epistemological and Hermeneutical Critique of Psychoanalytic Chan/Zen

• Religion: Tibetan Buddhist New Year Rituals in Amdo

• Philosophy: The Philosophy of Laozi

• Social Science: Development of Civil Society Organization in Mainland China

• Education: Deaf Education and Chinese Sign Language

• Socio-linguistics: Social Implications of Mandarin vs. Dialect Use

• Ecology and Development: Tourism and the Yunnan's Nujiang River Valley; Environmental Policy in China; Tea Culture; Bamboo Culture

• Medicine: Traditional Chinese Massage Techniques

• Literature: The Chinese Writer as Social Activist

• Art: Chinese Calligraphy; Daoist Elements in Chinese Painting

• Women Studies: Contemporary Chinese Women Writers

• Ethnomusicology: A Comparative Study of Western Traditional and Chinese Ethnic Musical Forms

• Politics: The Personality Cult of Mao Zedong; Policies of Liberation between 1949 and the Present

• History: History of the Cultural Revolution

• Martial Arts: Wushu, Qigong and Taiji Traditions of Martial Arts

• Education: Language Acquisition and Ethnic Minorities in Eastern Tibet

Field advisors are professionals and specialists who can offer students more in-depth study of a chosen field through an ISP or specially arranged lectures and courses. Some field advisors and lecturers who have worked with us in the past include:

• Bao Liming (Professor, Department of Philosophy, Zhejiang University). Professor Bao is a scholar of comparative religion.

• Chen Zhixin (Doctor, Municipal Traditional Chinese Medicine College)

• Fan Chunlei (Professor, Hangzhou Traditional Chinese Medicine College). Professor Fan has arranged private tutorials in taiji quan and qigong, traditional Chinese longevity exercises.

• Fang Jianqiao (Director, Department of Acupuncture and Massage, Zhejiang Traditional Chinese Medicine College)

• Hu Xiaojun (Associate Professor, Institute of Fine Arts, Zhejiang University). Professor Hu is a nationally recognized artist and potter and has instructed Global College students at his studio in Hangzhou.

• Ji Jiancheng (Professor of Physical Education, Zhejiang University). Professor Ji has arranged private tutorials in wushu, and other traditional Chinese martial arts, for Global College students and has taught abroad in the U.K.

• Judith Kolbas, Ph.D. (Vice President of the Royal Asiatic Society). Dr. Juidth Kolbas graduated from New York University in 1992 from the Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Literatures, where she wrote her dissertation on Mongol economics in the time of Chingiz Khan. She has served as the Vice-President of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland (2005-2008) and is the author of The Mongols in Iran (London: Routledge/Curzon, 2006). She currently researches Khitan influence on Western Turkish tomb structures, and the 19th ct. overland tea trade from China to Russia. She has advised Global College students on Mongol and nomad culture.

• Na Ri (Professor, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing). Known also by his Mongolian name, Professor Narin is an anthropologist and professor of ethnic economy who has advised students working to document Mongolian nomads.

• Pan Yihe (Professor, Department of InterArea Studies, Zhejiang University). Professor Pan is also a member of censorship committee for all provincial television programs and has advised students on literature and international relations, and television broadcasting.

• Shi Chuan (Associate Professor, School of Film and Television Arts and Technology, Shanghai University). Professor Shi Chuan teaches the history of Chinese cinema and has lectured abroad and appeared on national television networks in the U.S.

• Kevin Stuart (Professor, Qinghai Nationalities College and Qinghai Teacher's University). Dr. Kevin Stuart lives in the eastern Tibetan region of Amdo in Xining, capital of Qinghai province, where he teaches and organizes development and education projects for rural Tibetans and writes academic papers on ethnic minority culture in China. Dr. Stuart has arranged for our students to teach English in a Tibetan village and edit project and grant proposals.

• Wang Chao (Film Director). Director Wang is a graduate of the Beijing Film Academy in 1994 and is an internationally acclaimed director of such films as Orphan of Anyang (2002) and Day and Night (2004), and he has worked with the director Chen Kaige on such movies as Farewell My Concubine and The Emperor and the Assassin.

• Wang Huiyu, MFA (Film Director). Huiyu studied in the MA program at China Film Art Research Center (Beijing) in 1998, focusing on Contemporary Chinese Cinema, and in 2004 received her MFA in filmmaking from San Francisco State University, where she also taught film production, theory, and history. She has since become Assistant Professor at Shanghai University, and Visiting Professor at China Arts Academy and Zhejiang University. Huiyu's teaching covers the creative process of both fiction and non-fiction filmmaking, the history of Chinese Cinema and its reflection of traditional and contemporary aesthetics, culture and politics. Her films include The Key (2000) and Dr. Naka's Memoirs (2004), and a screenplay, The Expected Relationship, adapted from a Kunqu Opera play by Li Yu (1611-1679).

• Wang Juedan (Ph.D. candidate in Chinese Literature, Zhejiang University). Ms. Wang is a regular Mandarin language tutor for students interested in additional independent study in this language.

• Wang Yongjiang (Calligrapher). Mr. Wang is a nationally recognized calligrapher, particularly known for his grass script, and he has arranged Chinese calligraphy and traditional Chinese painting courses for students.

• Xue Huake (Lecturer, Department of Visual Arts, China School of Fine Arts). Professor Xue has advised students in fine art and commercial photography and is the first Chinese professional photographer to fully document the Tibetan sky-burial. He leads photographic expeditions to Tibet and is one of the foremost Chinese photographers of Tibetan nomadic culture.

• Yu Xiaoqiu (Director of the Research for the National Institute of International Relations in Beijing). Director Yu has delivered lectures on contemporary Sino-American political problems

• Zhong Tian (Director of Tongxiang County Television). Mr. Zhong has served as a field advisor for students interested in documentary television production.

• Xiawuzashi (Tibetan monk, Wutun Moanstery, Qinghai). The monk Xiawuzai has hosted Global College students at his monastery in Qinghai in the spring semester and has taught studio classes in Tibetan Buddhist ritual painting. In 1999 he participated in painting the World’s largest thangka, which was awarded the Guinness World Record in 1999, and in 2005 he visited the U.S. as part of a cultural exchange.

• Xu Yongming (Associate Professor, Department of Chinese Literature, Zhejiang University). Professor Xu is a scholar of Ming and Qing dynasty literature.

Service Learning Project



Students can also design a service learning project as an independent study project (ISP) by focusing on social welfare work with the local community, especially those that take advantage of the student's native written and oral communication skills in English. For example, a student might help to edit entries for a Tibetan-English dictionary, teach English to children at a low-income primary school or to neophyte monks at the Dharma Purity Buddhist Studies Association.

Students may also design their own social welfare project. Students will learn to identify a need in the community, conduct the necessary background research to better understand how to respond to the need in a meaningful way, draft a persuasive appeal, design a means to broadcast the appeal and pool financial resources on-line through a nonprofit organization like Give Meaning or Net Aid World Schoolhouse, which will allocate donated funds through a local charity to support the project designed by the student, learn how to direct internet traffic to your site by creating a BLOG Badge, such as those provided by Word of BLOG, troll for a relevant blogosphere through a search engine like Ice Rocket, contact relevant aid organizations by mail and phone, and network community groups, private and institutional donors through an email campaign. This option is intended for students who want to contribute to the local community their independent study projects in a meaningful way, while learning important writing, organizational and networking skills at the same time.

For examples, please see the Charity page of this site.

Internships



Another type of Independent Study Projects (ISP) that students can arrange is an internship for credit. As is the case with all ISPs, most students are too busy in the fall semester to participate in an internship, so most internship projects are carried out in the spring semester, or during a student’s third semester in the fall, after students have completed the required core curriculum and have the requisite foundation in Chinese language. In addition, it can be difficult to arrange social welfare internships with a Chinese governmental work unit, due to the language restrictions and the sensitive nature of such work, but students have had success volunteering with International Non-Governmental Organizations (INGO) or nonprofit organizations in Hangzhou and Shanghai.

For a list of possible internships, please see the Internship Opportunities page on this site.

Last updated on Aug 05, 2008

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