Join us in Shanghai!
Changes in Urban China: Shanghai is a May session education abroad experience that provides a rich opportunity both culturally and academically. Participants study the history, culture and language of Shanghai, the world's largest city, at East China Normal University in Shanghai. Visits to places discussed in class are also included. The program is led by Ohio State Professor Christopher Reed, a specialist in the histories of modern China and Shanghai.
Admitted participants are required to register for 3 hours of History 3798.03.
The Student Perspective
The following are quotes from past program participants.
"I am grateful for all the lessons that this city and this program have taught me, and I hope that I will be able to return to Shanghai again someday." -- Elizabeth Maher
"The history class has been the most interesting class for me that I have taken while a student at Ohio State because even though I have been to Shanghai twice before this trip, I have yet to learn much about its history." -- Rachel Dailey
"Our history course included trips to museums and cultural sites around Shanghai such as the Old City, the Bund and the Shanghai History Museum. We also went on weekend excursions to Suzhou and Hangzhou."-- Elizabeth Maher
"The program was of very high quality. Professor Reed is one of the best guides that one could ask for in Shanghai and the teachers from ECNU were also of high quality. Our teachers at ECNU were patient with us as we tried to make the transition. This program has inspired me to search for more study-abroad opportunities in Asia in the future."
"The history class was very interesting and it was great to be able to travel around Shanghai and see examples of what we were learning about in class."
"I loved this course!!! The professor was extremely helpful and enthusiastic."
"This class has been much more incredible than I could have imagined."
"The experience was absolutely spectacular and I think it was executed flawlessly."
"It was a great experience and I without a doubt learned a lot about the country and about myself. I think it was the most personally valuable experience that I have done in college inside or outside of the classroom that has expanded my understanding of the world around me."
Read an article from our departmental newsletter about the program.
Resident Director: Associate Professor Christopher Reed
"Since 1991, I have been traveling to Shanghai, where I was a graduate student at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences. At Ohio State, I teach modern Chinese history. I developed my study-abroad program 'Shanghai, 1750 to 2050—History, Culture and Language' to extend learning beyond the university’s campus and to provide Ohio State students an opportunity to study Shanghai and the Chinese language in China. In my view, study abroad programs are an excellent way to fulfill one of the goals of a liberal-arts college education, which, to paraphrase publisher Malcolm Forbes, is the replacement of a closed mind with an open one. If students achieve this (in my case, regarding themselves, China and the U.S.), a study abroad program can contribute, in a small way, to international brotherhood at a time when many global forces are organizing in the other direction. In addition, past students seem pleased with the abilities they gain to order in Chinese from a Chinese menu." — Professor Christopher Reed
About Professor Reed
Professor Reed earned a Ph.D. in East Asian History from the University of California, Berkeley in 1996, a C.Phil. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1990, an M.Phil. from the University of Glasgow, Scotland in 1984, and a B.A. from McGill University in Montreal, Canada in 1978. He is a specialist in the history of modern China with particular focus on the period from the mid-eighteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries. His teaching covers the Qing, Republican, and People's Republic periods.
This history education abroad program is coordinated by the Global Education Program in the Office of International Affairs (OIA). For more information and/or to apply to the program, please visit their website.