Ford Scholars Program: Anish Kanoria & Neal Bhandari
Vassar College has successfully received an exploration grant from the Luce Foundation on the study of China’s environment. Over the Spring of 2016, Professors Su and Zhou taught the annual International Study Trip class about China and its development and environment. The class went on a study trip to China with 27 students and 10 faculty members between March 11 and 25.
The Ford Scholars project throughout the summer, following the semester-long course, focused on compiling research from the trip, helping faculty members to develop teaching modules for the future, preparing for the faculty pedagogy workshop, and researching about China-related topics. In addition, the project also assisted in preparing materials for the application of the implementation grant from the Luce Foundation. As a part of this, a ten-minute video summary of the class, trip, faculty workshop, and summer research was also created. This video is in the post-production stage and will be available very soon.
We created annotated bibliographies for 7 professors on topics ranging from urbanism to genetics in China. In particular, we researched China before, during, and after the Paris climate talks (COP21); food, crops, farming, and energy in China; maps and research articles on Chinese cities and urbanism; potable water in Fiji, Singapore, and NYC and biodiversity and marine ecosystems in China.
These annotated bibliographies were used as a basis for a pedagogy workshop conducted from June 14-15 in which faculty discussed ways and modules through which China and Asia could be incorporated into existing and/or new courses. This interdisciplinary meeting also discussed best teaching practices, the participating faculty’s experiences from the trip and how their disciplines intersected.
Using this research, an online database was created as an infrastructure for a larger initiative to foster a community of resources regarding Asia and the environment between students and faculty at the college. Eventually, as this initiative grows, these resources will be made available to the public. The hope is to make this a convenient, cohesive, and reliable database on information related to Asia incorporating not only the environment, but also politics, economics, society, and culture.
Throughout the course of the project, the scholars also visited the Princeton Club of New York to attend a lecture called “Learning from New York: New Urbanism in China” by Paul Whalen. Students also traveled to Providence and Washington D.C. for related activities.
The project has been a dynamic and rewarding experience through which we sharpened our research and computer skills while making valuable connections and memories.