PI: Ellen MacKay, Department of Literature
Partner Organizations: Tel Aviv University, University of California-Santa Barbara, Northwestern University, University of Tennessee, University of California-Riverside, University of Washington, University of Cologne
Challenging the notion of dragons as non-speaking technical props, the project reframes them as rich cultural “thinking spaces” that transcend text-based dramaturgy. The consortium has revealed how dragons encode symbolic and structural meanings—such as the moral architecture of medieval hellmouths or the vocalization of marginalized identities—through their physical comportment and sonic presence. Building on workshops in Cologne and Chicago, the consortium proposes a research convening in Beijing and Shanghai, including archival sessions, museum visits, and performance viewings, culminating in a field excursion to historic theatres in Ningbo. The Beijing session will emphasize cross-cultural exchange and draw on East Asian performance traditions with guidance from local scholars. The ultimate goal is a collective, comparative publication on global dragon performance, advancing a broader understanding of theatre's visual and material vocabularies.
PI: Renslow Sherer, Department of Medicine
Partner Organizations: Wuhan University, Zhongnan Hospital, Renmin Hospital, Shanghai Ruijin Hospital, MedEdMentor, University of Toronto, Children’s Hospital of Orange County,
This project supports the 3rd Sino-US Medical Education Conference, a continuation of a longstanding collaboration between the University of Chicago and Wuhan University. Building on two prior conferences, this convening will bring together educators, policymakers, and technologists to explore how emerging technologies—particularly artificial intelligence (AI), augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR), and simulation—can reshape medical education in China and beyond. The conference will focus on adapting these tools to support competency-based, personalized, and collaborative learning while addressing the financial, ethical, and pedagogical challenges associated with their adoption. By fostering international dialogue and innovation, the initiative seeks to advance inclusive, learner-centered approaches to medical training and prepare the next generation of medical professionals for a rapidly evolving healthcare landscape.
PI: Jonathan Lio, Department of Medicine
Partner Organizations: Wuhan University, Peking Union Medical College Hospital
This project expands an established clinical exchange program between UChicago Medicine and Peking Union Medical College Hospital (PUMCH) to include Wuhan University, leveraging long-standing institutional partnerships. Since 2014, the exchange has facilitated mutual clinical observation for over 60 residents in surgery, internal medicine, and pediatrics, with renewed activity in 2024 following the COVID-19 pandemic. The expanded program will support up to six UChicago residents for short-term placements in China and welcome reciprocal participants, with staggered schedules to optimize hosting. Through direct observation, ward rounds, and academic engagement in varied clinical contexts, participants will deepen diagnostic skills, expand cultural competence, and gain firsthand exposure to global healthcare practices.
PI: Chenhao Tan, Department of Computer Science
Partner Organizations: Tsinghua University, Shanghai National Artificial Intelligence Institute
The ScienceAI workshop, co-hosted by Tsinghua University and the University of Chicago Beijing Center, aims to chart transformative directions for artificial intelligence in accelerating scientific discovery. Spanning three days, the event will convene global researchers, students, and industry leaders to explore automated hypothesis generation, AI-driven experimentation, and collective scientific intelligence. The program includes keynote lectures, technical sessions, panel discussions, working groups, and lab tours, alongside a competitive student innovation challenge that funds and mentors AI-powered science projects. With support from academic and industry partners, ScienceAI will foster international collaborations, seed interdisciplinary research, and shape new paradigms for AI-augmented science.
PI: J. Michael Millis, Department of Surgery
Partner Organizations: PUMCH and Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, PUMCH
PUMCH, the top ranked hospital that is affiliated with PUMC, the top ranked medical school in China have a long relationships with the University of Chicago School of Medicine and Hospital that dates back more than 100 years. Prior to COVID, PUMC sent 6-10 medical students to UChicago Medicine for at least a 2 week week period to observe health care at the University of Chicago. We have restarted this student exchange by hosting 6 students this past summer and will hosting 10 more this Spring. PUMCH has agreed to take 16 University of Chicago medical students this coming Spring, The funding for each institution's students comes from their own institution. University of Chicago students for 2025 are supported from the Provost award last cycle and matching funds from the China Medical Board. The UChicago students are all 4th year students and this is an medical school approved senior elective in Global Health. This would be clinical observerships in the department of our medical student's choosing. The students would be expected to prepare a brief report on how they witnessed differences and similarities in the patient care model and clinical research if applicable from what they have seen in the US. The 1st cohort of University of Chicago students in May of 2024 had a wonderful experience and from their experience demand grew exponentially.
PI: Tongji Philip Qian, Department of Visual Arts
Partner Organizations: Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, Yangdeng Art Collective, Yangdeng Art Museum, Zunyi Art Museum
Building on a successful 2024–2025 exhibition on the Yangdeng Art Collective at the University of Chicago Center in Beijing, this project proposes a second phase of artistic and scholarly exchange focused on collective authorship, transnational dialogue, and rural cultural expression. Through an ongoing open call that invites visual and textual contributions from audiences in Chicago and Yangdeng, the project complicates authorship and redefines the exhibition as a site of reception and participation. A collectively authored, anonymously sourced artist book will pair U.S.-generated questions with responses from Chinese artists, curators, and students, creating a cross-cultural archive of artistic inquiry. These materials will inform a future exhibition at the Logan Center for the Arts and serve as the foundation for academic teaching, public programming, and institutional collaborations with the Yangdeng Art Museum, Zunyi Art Museum, and the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute. The project advances a methodology of dialogic exhibition-making while highlighting the importance of rural art collectives in global contemporary art discourse.
PI: Yueran Zhang, Department of Sociology
Partner Organizations: Tsinghua Institute for Advanced Study in Humanities and Social Sciences, American University
This project convenes a two-day symposium at the University of Chicago Center in Beijing (July 5–6, 2025) to explore the intersections between historical and ethnographic methodologies across the social sciences. Bringing together a diverse group of scholars from sociology, history, anthropology, and political science—based in the U.S., mainland China, Hong Kong, and Singapore—the event aims to cultivate interdisciplinary dialogue on methodological innovation. With a focus on research related to historical and contemporary China, participants will reflect on how these two approaches can mutually inform one another, particularly in understanding the social transformations of the reform era. Hosted in partnership with the Tsinghua Institute for Advanced Study in Humanities and Social Sciences (TIAS), the symposium will feature keynote lectures, panels, and roundtables, while laying the groundwork for ongoing scholarly exchange between UChicago and Chinese academic institutions.
PI: J. Michael Millis, Department of Surgery
Partner Organizations: Peking Union Medical College, Organ Donor and Transplantation Foundation
In 2006 several Univeristy of Chicago faculty members began advising the Chinese Ministry of Heath to transform the Chinese transplant system into an internationally ethically acceptable system and develop a voluntary citizen based organ donation system. Since the inception of the University of Chicago's Center in Beijing, these annual conferences have been a milestone to assess progress and provide goals and aspirations, combining policy, ethics and scientific basis for moving policy development forward. 2025 is the 10 year celebration of the fruits of these conferences and the work of the Ministry of Health, former vice Minister of Heath Jiefu Huang, and UChicago faculty that allowed the elimination of the use of organs from executed prisoners. This years conference will mark the progress of the reforms and the entrance of China into the global transplant family.
PI: Dali Yang, Department of Political Science
Partner Organizations: Renmin University, Sun Yat-sen University
This project proposes the revival of a signature UChicago workshop series at the Beijing Center through a two-day 2025 conference on “Regulation and Governance.” Building on the legacy of influential pre-pandemic academic gatherings in China that fostered collaboration across economics, law, sociology, and political science, this new initiative will focus on regulatory challenges in China and globally. Co-organized with Renmin University and possibly other Chinese institutions, the conference will convene leading scholars and early-career researchers to examine political, digital, environmental, and technological dimensions of regulation. By addressing the evolving relationship between governance frameworks and socio-economic change, the event aims to re-establish the UChicago Beijing Center as a hub for interdisciplinary research and dialogue.
PI: Yungti Li, Department of East Asian Languages
Partner Organizations: Southern University of Science and Technology, Shandong University
This project proposes a workshop focused on recent archaeological finds and research on bronze foundry sites and section-mold casting technology from the Middle Shang to Early Western Zhou periods in China. Bringing together field archaeologists, historians of technology, and archaeometric scientists, the workshop will explore technological change, continuity, and transmission from the mid-second to early-first millennium BCE. Recent discoveries, including major foundries in Anyang and more remote areas like Shaanxi and Gansu, highlight both regional development and broader dissemination of bronze casting practices. The workshop also aims to spotlight emerging archaeometric research, leveraging new analytical tools and laboratory methods to advance understanding of ancient Chinese metallurgical innovations.
PI: Zhaotian Luo, Department of Political Science
Partner Organizations: Peking University, Tsinghua University, Renmin University
This project proposes a three-day academic conference at the University of Chicago Center in Beijing to foster comparative political economy research on governance models in the U.S. and China. The conference will bring together 15 presenters and 10 discussants from both countries, aiming to analyze institutional arrangements across government, market, and society. With two daily sessions and a culminating roundtable, the event will facilitate cross-national academic exchange and identify future research agendas. It will also involve graduate students and media for broader engagement. A post-conference edited volume will capture scholarly insights and set the foundation for sustained bilateral collaboration in this field.
PI: Dongzhou Zhang, Center for Advanced Radiation Sources
Partner Organizations: Shanghai Advanced Research in Physical Sciences
This proposal seeks support for an international hands-on training workshop in Shanghai, China, focused on high-pressure crystallography and aligned with the 2025 IUCr High Pressure Workshop. Led by staff from the University of Chicago’s GSECARS beamline—a global leader in synchrotron-based high-pressure research—the workshop will train junior scientists in advanced data collection and analysis methods using real-world X-ray diffraction data. With a strong emphasis on practical skills and open-source tools developed at GSECARS, this initiative enhances global collaboration, supports early-career researchers, and strengthens ties between UChicago and the international high-pressure science community.