Outline of a world map

Provost's Global Faculty Awards

2024-25 Mainland China Recipients

Academic Events

 

10th Annual Conference on Advanced Therapies for Solid Tumors and Academic Development

PI: J. Michael Millis, Department of Surgery

Partner organization: Peking Union Medical College

Over the last several years, there has been an explosion of next generation tumor sequencing information. This information is transforming the way clinicians at leading institutions decide which therapeutic options to offer their patients. The PI will hold a conference, titled “Utilizing Tumor Genomics to Personalize Treatment for Hepatopancreaticobiliary Malignancies and Academic Development”, to add to the combined knowledge and therapeutic pathways together with the conference’s associated publications. Specifically, the participants will investigate how the next generation genomic sequencing can guide treatment and impact the interaction of the various treatment modalities, including systemic therapy, radiation therapy, local/ regional therapy and potentially curative surgery. The academic development portion of the conference will focus on how to develop one's academic career in a post COVID academic world.

International Medical Educators Program Conference and Infectious Diseases Specialty Training and Professional Development Conference

PI: Jonathan Lio, Department of Medicine

Partner organizations: Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, PUMCH, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University

The PI proposes two conferences related to the dual mission of WUMER around infectious disease care and medical education reform: 1) the International Medical Educators Program (IMEP) conference focused on curriculum design; 2) Infectious Diseases Specialty Training and Professional Development conference. Leveraging a successful partnership that began in 2003, these events will focus on innovative curriculum design and standardized infectious disease specialty training. The International Medical Educators Program (IMEP) Conference will highlight impactful medical education projects, while the Infectious Diseases Specialty Training Conference will discuss the development of a national training curriculum. These initiatives are designed to enhance the skills of healthcare professionals and improve patient care in China, showcasing collaborative efforts in medical education reform and specialty training advancement.

Cultures of Labor and the Labor of Culture in Contemporary China:  Migrancy, Patronage, Platforms

PIPaola Iovene, Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations

Partner organization: Peking University

The project investigates how Chinese migrant workers cope with experiences of dislocation through cultural practices such as writing, performance, and use of Internet and social media.  Specifically, the collaborators hope to reconsider concepts of migrancy, platforms, and patronage in light of the changes that have occurred in the Chinese labor and media landscape since the pandemic. The PI and collaborators will convene at the Beijing center. The discussion will explore how to renegotiate the digitization of life, leaving the cities, and platform economy and new forms of patronage. The collaborators’ long-term goal is to develop new humanistic, media-studies, and cultural perspectives to problems that have primarily been discussed by social scientists, and to foster collaborations with independent scholars, artists, and activists.

Neuroimmunity and Cognition in CNS Diseases

PI: Anthony Reder, Department of Neurology

Advanced neuroscience research, clinical diagnosis, and treatment are essential and critical for disease management. An inflammatory storm in the brain causes cognitive disorders, such as multiple sclerosis, post- stroke depression, some neurodegeneration, and COVID encephalopathy. The collaborators will continue their education and collaboration through holding workshops to meet with faculty, medical residents, postdoctoral fellows, and researchers. The PI will discuss and evaluate the difficult cases on neurocognitive disorders and update the advanced therapy. During workshop, the participants will share clinical resources, conduct research projects, and exchange scholars. These will bridge US and Chinese physicians, scientists, and medical students/postdoctoral fellows in neuroscience to promote education, communication, and collaboration between leading neuroscience institutions and hospitals.

Performance Theory in China (1550-1900)

PI: Judith Zeitlin, Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations

Partner organizations: CUHK, Harvard University 

The PI will host a symposium to reconsider the significance of critical writings about theater and musical performance in late Ming-Qing China (roughly 1550-1900). The event will bring together a new generation of young scholars doing cutting-edge research on Chinese theatre and performance studies. Part of the event will be devoted to an intensive “mini-workshop” focused on the difficult essays by the largely-understudied late Ming drama critic Pan Zhiheng (1556–1622). Pan devoted much of his life to writing about theater, singing, the training of actors, musical instruments, and the lives of courtesan-actresses. Kelly and Zeitlin are co-editing a volume of their English translations of Pan’s essays as a Chinese counterpart to Zeami’s (1363–1443) famous writings on Nō for performance studies. 

International Experience in Global Health : Beijing

PI: J. Michael Millis, Department of Surgery

Partner organizations: UCM, PUMCH, PUMC and Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences

PUMCH, the top ranked hospital that is affiliated with PUMC, the top ranked medical school in China, has a long relationship with the University of Chicago School of Medicine and Hospital that dates back more than 100 years. In this project, PUMC/PUMCH would host UChicago medical students for 2 weeks at PUMC/PUMCH. These would be clinical observerships in the department of UChicago medical student's choosing. The students would spend 1 week prior to the visit to China discussing global health and the challenges of productive interactions. Then, the students would spend 2 weeks in Beijing at PUMCH. On their return, the students would be expected to prepare a brief report on how they witness the differences and similarities in the patient care model and clinical research if applicable from what they have seen in the US.

The Ideal of the Sage in Chinese and Jewish Thought and Culture

PI: Josef J Stern, Department of Philosophy

Partner organization: Shandong University

This project will focus on the ideal of the sage in the classical traditions of both China and Judaism. The project begins with the Greek model of a sage, the sophos who possesses wisdom (sophia), for whom there are significant parallels in both Chinese and Jewish traditions. Notions of the navi’ (prophet), hakham (sage), hasid (pious one), tzaddiq (righteous one), and rav (master, teacher) that emerge from biblical, rabbinic, medieval , and post-Enlightenment secular and Hasidic texts suggest comparisons with the junzi (noble person), the xian (worthy), the sheng (sage), the zhenren (true man), and the xian (immortal) cited in texts from Warring States and Han China, all developed and debated in later Chinese philosophical literature. The aim of the conference is to explore parallels and differences between these two conceptual fields and, as an offshoot, to explore how the ideal figure of the sage has been and can still be transformed in contemporary Chinese and Jewish culture and thought. 

Research Project

 

From Yangdeng to Beijing: A Countercultural Episode To Arrive At The Nation’s Capital

PI: Tongji Philip Qian, Department of Visual Arts

Partner organizations: Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, Asia Art Archive (Hong Kong and New York)

The project will discuss, research, and exhibit projects of Yangdeng Art Cooperative in Guizhou, China, a rural Chinese art collective founded by a group of artists in 2012. The PI will prioritize the following aspects and inquiries: 1. How the setting of a rural village capably incubated meaningful and perhaps countercultural art projects despite the lack of formal artistic training. 2. How local carpenters lost their job due to mass-manufacture and what primed them to subscribe to non- utilitarian sculptural forms. 3. How the idea of institutional critique, perhaps prevalent in Western art history, found its place in Yangdeng and prompted the founding of “museums” such as the Tofu Brain Museum. The PI plans to interview artist founders, local Yangdeng residents, and students and scholars at the University of Chicago. In Yangdeng, the PI will document projects in situ and gather first-hand interpretation from residents. 

Implementing Pilot ECHO Training in China

PI: Daniel Johnson, Department of Pediatrics

Partner organization: Tongji University

The Extension for Community Health Outcomes (ECHO), originally developed by the University of New Mexico in 2003, is an innovative workforce development model for expanding primary care capacity in underserved communities. The ECHO-Chicago program at UChicago Medicine, established in 2010, is the third oldest and longest running ECHO program worldwide and the first to apply the model to an urban setting. Through Zoom, ECHO-Chicago “moves knowledge, not patients” by bringing together community-based providers and subject matter experts to engage in curriculum driven training and case-based learning that focuses on helping providers navigate real-world challenges to best practice implementation. In this project, the PI will travel to China to conduct hands-on collaborative work in training Tongji University School of Medicine’s team on ECHO implementation. By building health care capacity this way, patients can receive state of the art care with a provider they already know and trust. 

Metacognitive Interventions for Ethnic Youth Affected by Extreme Poverty in Southwest China

PI: "Eugene" Yu Ji, Department of Cognitive Science

Partner organizations: Nanjing Normal University; HEC Paris, France

This project investigates the impact of metacognitive interventions on self-esteem and motivation of self enhancement among ethnic youth in Southwest China's underdeveloped regions. Previous research indicates the effectiveness of metacognitive interventions and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) in reducing impulsive and harmful interpersonal behaviors. But these studies and interventions are still limited in behavioral scope and sociocultural context. Through this project, the PI aims to extend these strategies to address the motivational issues, such as low self-esteem, low motivation for self enhancement, and excessive self-protective tendency among youth in an underdeveloped ethnic region in Southwest China, where youth usually face poverty, educational barriers, and ethnic disparities. Specific interventions include on-site CBT sessions in a summer camp for middle school and high school students in this region. The on-site sessions will be followed by further letter exchanges afterwards to reinforce and assess the effects of the on-site intervention. 

Training Initiative

 

Residency Exchange

PI: Renslow Sherer, Department of Medicine

Partner organization: PUMCH

Since the launch of the reciprocal residency education program in 2014, the partnership of University of Chicago Medicine (UChicago Medicine) and Peking Union Medical College Hospitals (PUMCH) has been continuously strengthened through robust residency exchanges and educational events. As of now, close to 60 residents directly benefitted through the exchange program where they experienced and learned firsthand from their clinical observation, adding to the growing community of medical professionals who engage in the important dialogues in the areas of residency training standards, clinical competency building, evaluation methods, clinical ethics and faculty development, etc. These academic and cultural exchanges have enabled ideas for innovations and forces for change. The PI proposes to continue the residency exchange program in the 2024-2025 academic year. The project will help further the shared mission of global engagement, and bridging the mutual understanding of medical education and health systems in the U.S. and China.