IAPS, together with the Universities' China Committee in London and the School of Contemporary Chinese Studies, helped fund my PhD fieldwork in China between 15 February and 26 April 2014.
This fieldwork is a core component of my PhD research on the concept of non-traditional security (NTS) in contemporary Chinese International Relations Thought. My research focuses on the analysis of Chinese academic publications on NTS and interviews with scholars working on NTS in the PRC.
The purpose of the fieldwork was to conduct these interviews. During the first six weeks, I interviewed important scholars in Shanghai and Hangzhou, including Fudan University, the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences and Zhejiang University. In April, I interviewed scholars in Beijing at, for example, Peking University, Renmin University and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. In total, I interviewed over 30 key scholars, granting me crucial insights into their research and into the Chinese NTS debate.
My stay in China also enabled me to access important material in university and national libraries unavailable in Nottingham, and to purchase recent publications on NTS. In Shanghai, I also attended a conference on security in Asia, allowing me to see parts of the debate ‘in action’.
This fieldwork is extremely important for my research and my academic development, and I am very grateful for the support from IAPS.
Sabine Stieber, PhD Candidate in the School of Contemporary Chinese Studies
Posted on Friday 20th June 2014