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Communication Networks among the Chinese Knowledge Diaspora

A talk by Anthony Welch

Wednesday, February 13, 2008
3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Moore Hall 3320
UCLA
Los Angeles, CA United States

Knowledge diasporae are part of the wider phenomenon of increased global mobility, especially by intellectuals; the transnational networks they establish, undergirded by the greater density and diffusion of information technology, are creating more complex and decentralized, two-way flows of knowledge, capital, and technology. While examples of Israeli, Indian, and Taiwanese networks are better known, this talk focuses on the Chinese diaspora, now estimated in total at 35m worldwide, and increasingly composed of the highly skilled.

The talk poses the question of how intellectual diasporae maintain connections to the motherland, and to other parts of the knowledge diaspora. Reporting on a pilot of what will be a bi-national study of the Chinese knowledge diaspora, the talk reviews the networks that are established, and some of their strengths and limitations.

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Anthony Welch was, until recently, Head, School of Policy and Practice, Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of Sydney, but has also worked at other universities in Australia and abroad. He is both a policy specialist, researching both national and international educational reforms and practice, (mostly in Higher Education), and a specialist in cross-cultural analysis and research, with extensive experience in many countries, including the Asia Pacific region. His more than 100 publications include numerous works on practical reform and policy issues within the SE Asian region, as well as other parts of the world.

He holds an M.A., and Ph. D. from the University of London, has lectured widely and/or researched at universities in the USA, UK, Japan, Korea, France, China, Taiwan and Germany, and is the author and/or editor of numerous books, some of which have been translated into eight major European and Asian languages. Professor Welch has consulted to federal government departments in Australia, Japan, Korea, within Europe and the USA, and to UNDP and the Commonwealth of Learning. His significant project experience includes work in China, Taiwan and Viet Nam, as well as other parts of SE Asia.

He is currently the recipient of an Australian Research Council Grant for a project titled The ‘Chinese Knowledge Diaspora’, and has previously been a fellow at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (CFAT) [1993], a Visiting Professor at the University of Georgia (UGA) (1988), the University of London (1982), the Institut National de Recherche Pedagogie (2002) and the Humboldt Universität zu Berlin (and DAAD Fellow) in 1997 and 2001.

Selected Publications

• Connell, R., Welch, A., (et al) 2006 Education, Change and Society. Oxford University Press.
• Welch, A., (2006) Konkurrennzkultur: Internationalisierung, Studentenströme, und Globalisierung des Australischen Hochschulsystem. Fuchs, E., und Drewek, P,. (Hg.), Internationalisierung von Bildung und Erziehung: Institutionen, Diskurse und Transfers (Ergon Verlag: Würzburg,).
• (Ed.) 2005 The Professoriate; Profile of a Profession. (Amsterdam, Springer/Kluwer)
• The Minnow and the Whale. Singapore China Relations in Higher Education in the GATS Era’, International Higher Education, Winter 2007.

 

Presented by the UCLA Paulo Freire Institute in conjunction with the Center for Chinese Studies.

For more information please contact

Lauren Jones
Tel: 310 966-7867
lijones@ucla.edu

Sponsor(s): Center for Chinese Studies