Last week at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center, MAIS students defended their theses to their chosen thesis adviser, as well as other HNC faculty members. While at the Center, MAIS students must declare a concentration area from among the five different areas of study offered: Chinese Studies, International Politics; International Economics, International and Comparative Law, and Energy, Resources and Environment. At the end of their two years of study, international MAIS students are required to write and orally defend a thesis in Chinese which relates to their chosen concentration area, while Chinese MAIS students complete their thesis in English. To help prepare for the thesis writing process, international MAIS students choose a thesis adviser from among the Chinese faculty members. In addition, MAIS students participate in thesis prep courses to learn about different research techniques, and to discover how their thesis topic might relate to a wider range of Sino-global relations. Below are some examples of different thesis topics presented by MAIS '14 students:
- The Role of the Maritime Militia: People's War at Sea
- Reasons for overseas study - An empirical study of international students in America and American students studying abroad
- Addressing the challenge of building a child protection system in China: A comparative analysis utilizing legal perspectives from the United States, Norway and the 'BRICS' countries
- The Geopolitical Implications of Chinese Natural Gas Imports
- On the implementation of General Education in Contemporary Chinese Universities: A Case Study of Sun Yat-sen University and Nanjing University
For more information regarding what it's like to write a thesis in Chinese, check out some sound words of advice from previous
HNC MAIS alumni.
