1st Edition

Confucius and Crisis in American Universities Culture, Capital, and Diplomacy in U.S. Public Higher Education

By Amy Stambach Copyright 2014

    China’s investment in U.S. higher education has raised considerable debate, but little research has been directed to the manner in which this investment unfolds and takes shape on the ground in local contexts. Confucius and Crisis in American Universities fills this gap by closely investigating how Chinese-funded U.S. programs are understood and configured in the modern American university. Drawing on interviews with Chinese teachers and their American students, as well as conversations with university administrators, this book argues that Chinese investment in American higher education serves as a broad form of global policy, harnessing the power of intercultural exchange as a means of managing international diplomatic relations through the experiences of university students.

    A transnational study, Confucius and Crisis in American Universities questions and reframes conventional notions of economic globalization and flexible citizenship, demonstrating how Chinese investment in U.S. education advances the lives of the already-privileged by creating access to overseas labor and markets, but to the exclusion of middle- and working-class students. A valuable and timely resource for scholars of education and anthropology, this book will also be useful to anyone interested in education policy or international affairs.

    Acknowledgements
    Chapter 1: Introduction
    Chapter 2: History in the Light of U.S.-China Educational Exchange
    Chapter 3: Language Instruction in Confucius Institutes
    Chapter 4: Administrators’ Views of Confucius Institutes
    Chapter 5: Campus and Community Participants
    Chapter 6: Chinese Teachers in the United States
    Chapter 7: Confucius Institutes: Saving Face, or Selling Out?
    References
    Index

    Biography

    Amy Stambach is Professor of Education at the University of Oxford, UK.