Research
The Institute of Chinese Studies conducts research on a wide range of topics concerning modern Chinese history and contemporary China. The Institute cooperates with China experts at the University of Freiburg in the fields of history, law, sociology, medicine and psychology, and is a member of the University’s Center for Transcultural Asian Studies (CETRAS).
The Institute’s main research interests focus on China’s transformations since the nineteenth century, especially in the areas of politics, society, military, economy, and culture.
Further information on research and projects can be found on the individual pages and websites of the Institute’s staff.
Current research projects funded by third parties include:
"The New Silk Road: National Visions and Everyday Imaginaries of Modernity in Eurasia" (Dr. René Trappel, supported by the Innovationsfond, University of Freiburg)
Steering Urban-Rural Integration: Administrative Reconfiguration for a Unified Citizenship (DFG) (Dr. René Trappel, supported by the German Research Foundation)
The Politics of Reading in the People's Republic of China (READCHINA) (JunProf. Lena Henningsen, supported by the European Research Council)
Asianisms in the 20th Century: Asia and the (Re)Definition of Spaces, Identities and Power Structures (Prof. Nicola Spakowski, supported by the German Research Foundation)
Zwischen Revolution und Reform. Übergangsjustiz und Herrschaftslegitimation in der VR China (Prof. Daniel Leese, supported by the Bavarian Academy of Sciences)
The Maoist Legacy: Party Dictatorship, Transitional Justice, and the Politics of Truth (Prof. Daniel Leese, supported by the European Research Council)
Worlds of Reading in China’s long 1970s: Reading and Writing during the Cultural Revolution (JunProf. Lena Henningsen, supported by the Ministry of Science and the Arts, by the University of Freiburg, and the Young Academy)
Heroization of work in China and Russia between 1920 and 1960, subproject of the Collaborative Research Center 948 “Heroes, Heroizations, Heroisms”
(Prof. Nicola Spakowski, supported by the German Research Foundation)
The Institute of Chinese Studies plays an active part in national and international research networks with a focus on modern China. One major partner in research and teaching is Nanjing University, also a strategic partner of the University of Freiburg. The “Nanjing-Freiburg Center for Modern China Studies” (founded in June 2015) and the “Freiburg-Nanjing Center for Modern China Studies” (founded in May 2016) support joint research projects and facilitate the regular exchange of students and teaching staff.
The Institute of Chinese Studies also participates in the international network WAGNET (Women and Gender in Chinese Studies Network) and regularly publishes the Network’s review journal WAGRev (Women and Gender in Chinese Studies Review).