The Broadyard Workshops (博雅工作坊) I-IV were held at the School of Economics, Peking University, after the unveiling ceremony of the Institute of Area Studies, Peking University (PKUIAS) on April 12. More than 30 experts and academics from domestic universities and research organizations participated and expressed their views and opinions during the discussions.
The First Broadyard Workshop was co-hosted by Prof. Gao Bingzhong, from the Institute of Sociology and Anthropology, and Niu Ke, Associate Professor from Department of History, focusing on the topic of "Experience, theories and methods for conducting area studies."
The participating academics opined that area studies should be rooted in fundamental studies. Researchers should not separate area studies from fundamental research in humanities and social sciences, but put more emphasis on summing up previous experience and reflecting on previous lessons from different countries' area studies. Peking University has a long history of area studies and has made many achievements in this field. In the future, the university should strengthen student training in relevant subjects to cultivate all-round talents as well as optimize the language learning environment.
The theme of the Second Broadyard Workshop was "China and its neighboring countries: trends and opportunities," which was hosted by Prof. Ning Qi, Dean of School of Foreign Languages, and Shen Zhihua, a professor from the Department of History, East China Normal University. Attendees at the workshop stressed the significance of border areas for studies on neighboring countries and suggested that academics can both help and save a country, calling on researchers to strengthen their research and contribute to the development of relations between China and foreign countries.
The topic of the third Broadyard Workshop was "The historic changes in the Middle East and new problems," and was hosted by Wu Bingbing, Director of Institute of Arab-Islamic Studies, Peking University, and Yang Guang, a researcher from the Institute of West-Asian and African Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
The conferees held that, with the US strategic emphasis shifting to the Asia-Pacific region and the changes in the world's energy-consumption patterns, a new pattern is forming in the Middle East region, in which Russia has returned to the region and the game-playing among the four strong Middle East countries — Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Iran and Israel — is intensifying. The future course of the situation will largely be determined by Donald Trump's policy toward the Middle East. Currently, the US has no willingness to continue its massive and direct military interference in the Middle East. But different from former US president Barack Obama, Trump's policy toward Middle East is tougher.
The Fourth Broadyard Workshop focused on the theme "Challenges faced by Europe and its choices." Prof. Li Qiang from the School of Government and Feng Zhongping, Director of the Institute of European Studies at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, hosted the workshop. Academics discussed populism in Europe and the challenges faced by European integration as well as other issues, and expressed their opinions.
