Shanghai University World History Roundtable 2022
World History Roundtable
How should we train graduate students in world history today?
Professor Gu Yunshen 顾云深 (Fudan University) proposes five keywords for the study of world history: “perspective 视野”, “taste 品味”, “norms 规范”, “skills 技能” and “mission 使命”.
Regarding his first keyword “perspective”, Gu Yunshen states that the discipline of world history must have a broader field of view in order to understand and study it properly. The task is to identify the research perspective that needs to be grounded in a detailed understanding of theory and contemporary world historiography. Understanding how other disciplines have interpreted and discussed the issue can help to improve one’s own research and thinking of world history. Talking about “taste”, Gu Yunshen suggests that students should improve their academic reading taste by looking up reviews, talking to tutors, and reading the ‘classics’ of their academic field of interest. When it comes to world history, he strongly recommends reading Patrick Manning’s Navigating World History – Historians Create a Global Past (2003, Chinese translation 2016) as a systematic and comprehensive introduction. When it comes to “skills”, Gu stresses that students should be trained in writing as well as using electronic resources while raising a problem awareness. This is highly interrelated with extensive reading. He also suggests that students should look up specific methods- and skill courses provided by their university and that the current high use of databases should better be balanced by making sure that such databases are always accompanied by well-written and valuable paper-based materials in the field. He then mentions the American Historical Association’s Guide to Historical Documents as a useful tool for the study of world history. Speaking about “norms”, he states that norms are the most fundamental issue of academic research. Only through intensive training one is able to meet the most basic requirement for a paper that complies with academic standards. Lastly, Gu Yunshen talks about the “mission” of world history. He argued that world history became a discipline after the founding of ‘New China’ when being imported from the Soviet Union. At the time, it was just one subfield of eight historical sciences[1], but it developed in the era of reform and opening. Thanks to China’s economic development, social progress, and its gradual move towards the center of the world stage, world history became a discipline of its own in 2011. Everyone should have such a sense of “mission” and contribution to the discipline of world history in China because the present research force in world history is still weak.
Professor Yu Weimin 余伟民 (East China Normal University) puts forward his perspectives on the design of the curriculum system and the dissertation for graduate students in world history.
At first, he discusses the design of the curriculum system, which was formed from universal to specific issues and takes into account the following three levels: the basic theories and methods of the discipline, the basic literature, and the history of the discipline, as well as the research direction of the supervisor.
At the first level, “basic theories and methods of the discipline” are designed with three basic courses: the general theory of Chinese history, general theory of world history, and theories and schools of history. Yu Weimin believes that after graduation, most students do not yet have the ability to understand the universality of world history, and graduate students need to supplement their knowledge in this area. Therefore, he suggests that in addition to the core literacy requirements for teaching history in secondary schools, graduate students should also have a corresponding core literacy requirement to know or understand the basic theories of the discipline, especially the Marxist materialistic view of history. Yu also pointed out that the postgraduate courses should incorporate the innovations of Chinese scholars in the basic theories of world history since the reform and opening-up because the students of world history should inherit their innovations and further develop them on the basis of their predecessors. The second level of “basic literature and history of the discipline” guides students to read some classic historical works in order to help them understand the height of academic development and the thickness of knowledge accumulation in the discipline field. It should form a general knowledge structure of the discipline and avoid the fragmentation of knowledge due to the division of professional research directions. In the third level “research direction of the supervisor”, each instructor conducts his or her own class, combining his or her research direction and the requirements of the supervised students with flexibility.
Second, Professor Yu Weimin talks about the dissertation for graduate students in world history. He states that problem awareness is very important when it comes to choosing the topic of the dissertation. This problem awareness comes from “concern 关切” in the context of the grand narrative, which should be most important when discussing world history. Therefore, the topic of a graduate student’s dissertation is a specific “issue”, but it must have a sense of “concern” with a problem and with such concern, one must think about what kind of topic to choose for the research.
Yu, therefore, suggested that the first responsibility of a mentor is to help students handle the transition from concern to issue and propose some valuable and meaningful background ideas for the grand narrative or to further refine the issues that students have already developed. By doing so there will be an awareness of the problem in the topic selection process so that the topic will be meaningful and valuable. The second responsibility of the mentor is to discuss with the student the viability of the chosen topic. He can provide students with a way to find historical materials if they are available and includes not only primary sources but also secondary sources. For Yu Weimin, the importance of archival documents as the historical basis for a dissertation has become common knowledge.
Altogether Professor Yu thinks that, if the problem of the curriculum system is solved well, the process of supervising students’ dissertations will also be smoother.
Professor Xiang Rong 向荣 (Fudan University) opened his statement with the phrase “The Greatest Change of the Century (百年未有之大变局)”, noting that this view is also applicable to the current teaching, research, and graduate training of world history in China. That is because the internet has made online learning and international academic exchanges possible, and the foreign language skills of young students have generally improved. Professor Xiang believes that the following five aspects of graduate training should be emphasized:
First, tutors should help to improve their students’ ability to read quickly. To do so, Xiang suggests that they give them some guidance on the relevant issues, list the relevant research frontiers or key questions, make a reading list, and check the students’ understanding through class discussions as well as one-to-one conversations in order to enable students to grasp the findings of previous research, to move into the forefront of scholarship and to identify their own research topics on this basis.
Second, there should be strengthening in professional skills training because every major requires different skills, especially when it comes to languages. According to Xiang Rong, it is therefore important not to make learning other languages than English an essential task in graduate school but to concentrate on the main task.
Third, one should have a good sense of time and graduate on time. That’s why Xiang suggests that tutors should calculate the time for their students, by keeping in mind three important points: first, choose a good topic, both meaningful and operable; second, timely correction, so that students can take fewer detours in the process of research and thesis writing; and the third is to keep a good view of their time in general. China is currently experiencing a serious shortage of domestic labor, which is why the students cannot stay in school for a long time, and the postgraduate training should be subordinated to the general situation of national economic and social development.
Fourth, Xiang proposes to develop students’ sense of history and historical thinking, because in recent years, various new historical theories and methods from the West have been introduced in China. He cites the leading British cultural Marxist historian E. P. Thompson using his words: “History is a discipline of context and process (历史学是一门关于背景和过程的学科).” Therefore, one needs to have the perspective and characteristics of history when introducing new theories and methods, especially interdisciplinary theories, and methods, or when studying population, environment, disease, and medical problems in history. According to Xiang Rong, the graduate level of world history is an apprenticeship stage, where it is enough to master the basic theories and methods of history, to be able to ask real questions, to use materials, and to have some independent opinions of one’s own, without putting too much effort into the theoretical aspects. However, history is a practical discipline, and the key is to be willing to put in the hard work.
Fifth, international perspectives and Chinese issues. In recent years, the conditions for doing world history research in China have improved greatly. Therefore, graduate students should participate in the international academic dialogue as much as possible and strive to publish abroad. But the purpose of Chinese people doing foreign history is not exactly the same as that of foreigners doing their own history. Over the years, the central government has placed special emphasis on the humanities and social sciences to serve the state and society, and this trend will continue. With different perspectives, the questions asked, and the problems studied will be different. Xiang points out, that students of foreign history also need to learn how to raise questions of Chinese concern with a certain amount of actual concern.
Professor Guo Dantong 郭丹彤 (Shanghai University) shared his study and teaching experience and believed that the training of graduate students in world history should start from four aspects: “world history + foreign language 世界史+外国语”, improving theoretical knowledge of history, attending academic conferences and mentorship programs.
Firstly, he also states that in order to study the history of any country, one must know its language and the study of ancient texts is necessary for the study of ancient world history. He then proposes, that world history, and foreign languages can be organically integrated by offering a course in reading primary documents, because the extensive reading of primary documents not only strengthens language training and memory but also develops students’ ability to distinguish the authenticity of documents and their use. Second, Professor Guo makes clear, that each person has his or her own opinion and perspective in reading the historical sources and therefore it is important to read the same historical sources. Thirdly, courses on the study of foreign historical masterpieces to improve the theoretical level of history should be offered. The students can learn the way of writing history and the use of historical materials by famous historians, and thus improve their historical literacy. In addition, he wants to hold a book club organized by the students themselves to provide a platform for postgraduate students to exchange and discuss. Fourth, students should be encouraged to organize and attend academic conferences, listen to lectures, and participate in their supervisor’s research projects.
Professor Zhang Yongan 张勇安 (Dean of the College of Arts and Letters) who attended the whole meeting, summarized the roundtable and thanked the four speakers for their insights and experience. He pointed out that the basic path of historical research is to read archival materials and then ask questions; to discuss and write about the questions raised. Today, it is increasingly easy and convenient to obtain information, but what’s lacking is careful research. He thinks that, if you have received rigorous and standardized academic training at the graduate level, you will have a good chance to engage in any kind of work in the future.
[1] These were historical theory and history of historiography, archeology, historical geography, studies of historical documents, specialized histories, ancient Chinese history, modern Chinese history, and world history.
This text is a translated summary of a report on a “World History Roundtable—How should we train graduate students in world history today?” (世界史圆桌|今天我们应该怎样培养世界史研究生?), compiled by Xu Xinyu 徐欣宇 and published in The Paper (Pengbai xinwen 澎湃新闻), January 10, 2022 (link to the original).
Summary by Maren Wicher.