Current NYU Shanghai Global Research Initiatives Fellows

Synopsis of Research in Shanghai (September 11 - November 16)： 

Muldoon’s thesis examines the emergence of culinary and dining culture in the U.S., with New York City serving as a focal point in her exploration of the material and cultural study of food. She is interested in tracing the shifts in dining culture in the past three centuries, as the codified French school of haute cuisine that long dominated the occidental approach to food was supplanted by new approaches to food and dining, which emphasize cultural omnivorousness. Inherent in this switch from elite “gourmet” to democratic “foodie” culture is the emergence of tandem values of authenticity and exoticism – two characteristics frequently associated (at least from an occidental standpoint) with cuisine from Asia.

Synopsis of Research in Shanghai (Sept 3 - Nov 30)：

Jiang’s dissertation aims to investigate the discursive practices of non-fiction moving image arts, produced in China from late 1970s to the present time. Jiang will examine the ways in which documentary, as a mode of socially-engaged image-making, not only transforms Chinese post-socialist independent film and video art, but also is itself transformed by the country's accelerated and uneven development under the techno-economic conditions of the information age. While the state holds no official records of these oftentimes dissident contents, relevant archives are usually found among individual collectors. Jiang has established contact with four scholars/artists who reside in Beijing, Nanjing and Shanghai.

Synopsis of Research in Shanghai (September 2 - December 13)：

Professor Ruthmann’s main research project - Play With Your Music - is focused on developing interactive learning materials for creative experience design and innovation for the Chinese education and technology markets. Building on the connections he has with the NYUSH Program on Creativity and Innovation (PCI), which has taken the form of a new presence for his research lab - MusEDLab - at NYUSH, and a successful summer 2018 course - Creative Learning Design, he is seeking to spend his year-long sabbatical in residence at NYU Shanghai to be close to current consulting and research projects connected to creative technology startups in Shanghai and Shenzhen, as well as work with Jack Ma's Yungu School in Hangzhou. He has a book under contract which is focused on documenting the creative work process that he has implemented within his Lab the past 5 years at NYU. A potential research project documenting the curriculum development process within Jack Ma's Yungu School is in proposal stage. If approved, that project would take place during the 2019-2020 school year in Hangzhou.

Synopsis of Research in Shanghai (February 3 - March 6)：

Academic works that describes expectations and desires contributes a lot to understanding Chinese new generations’ individual lifestyles, personalities, and desires. However, a lack of ethnographic research gazing into the values and self-evaluation of young people themselves who come of age under Chinese unified national education system still exists. Therefore, Tang proposes to do a master thesis aiming to bridge the represented and visible expectations and aspirations to the values and self-evaluation of Chinese urban youth through interrogating the way they perceive and use the word “success” in daily lives. The expressive meanings of “success” in different contexts (such as schools, family, marital market, media, etc.) to some extent reveal young generations’ imagination of a better life, either accessible or not. Also, besides using by individuals, success is also a word which has been existed so long in Chinese history and is unconsciously connected with middle class anxieties- especially youth and middle age. Shanghai is the second largest city in China and is a proper place for him to conduct interviews with local youth. He would like to take interviews with university students and compare them with students in NYU Shanghai. Also, Shanghai has a really complicated component of population, which provides an ideal field for class and youth study. Tang’s home university (Sichuan University) has good relationships with universities in Shanghai, therefore, they could provide him other help when doing fieldwork in Shanghai. During his time there, there should be Chinese Lunar New Year, which would be a good chance for him to participate in observation in families- he already has informants there.

Synopsis of Research in Shanghai (January 30 – May 22)：