Professor Arthur Burns's visit to Wuhan University
Professor Arthur Burns’s visit to Wuhan University
September 2011 The Department's Professor Arthur Burns was a visiting lecturer at Wuhan University, China, for ten days in September 2011. As a guest of the Institute for World Historical Studies, he delivered a course of six lectures on British History after 1750 to a large audience of undergraduate and postgraduate students working on British history for which Wuhan, one of the top 10 universities in China, is an important centre. He also met independently with a number of postgraduate students who hope to visit the UK for their studies, and offered advice to others just starting out or well advanced in their research. These contacts build on his earlier visit to China in 2009 for the British Chinese History Conference at Peking University, Beijing, and existing links with a student at Wuhan working in his particular field. Professor Burns says ‘It is really exciting to see how much interest in British history there is in China, and in particular to see how Wuhan’s Institute for World Historical Studies under the leadership of Professor Xiang Rong is exploiting digital resources to allow its students to engage with primary sources in ways hitherto impossible at such a distance. It was a privilege to teach such excellent and engaged students, and I look forward to remaining in touch with both the students and faculty who made me so welcome at Wuhan alongside the contacts I have already made in the Chinese academic community.’
Professor Arthur Burns is always happy to hear from and advise Chinese or other international students interested in studying at King’s.