Hopkins-Nanjing Center Blog

Student blogger Tarela Osuobeni shares her experience adjusting to the bilingual community at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center and her strategies for overcoming the learning curve. Arriving in China to start my year at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center, I first experienced the benefits of language immersion at the Shanghai airport. Having been in the U.S. for a month after being in Suzhou for the Critical Language Scholarship eight-week language immersion program, I was initially afraid that I had lost some of my language skills. However, the flow and familiarity of the words came back to me as I asked for directions and talked with my taxi drivers. I arrived at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center near midnight and found an HNC staff member waiting at the desk to hand me my room keys and check me into my room. When I got to my room, I fumbled around for the information I needed to connect to the internet, trying not to wake up my roommate. I found the sheet that provided directions, but panicked when I re...

The Hopkins-Nanjing Center is pleased to welcome Adam Webb as the new American Co-Director. He has served on the faculty at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center as Resident Professor of Political Science for over 10 years. He holds a PhD in politics from Princeton University and has previously taught at Princeton and Harvard, and served as a Visiting Scholar at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His research interests encompass political thought, globalization, and critiques of modernity, and his research has addressed topics including social movements, alternative development, and the rise of China . How did you come to teach at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center? I first came to the Hopkins-Nanjing Center in 2008, after a few years of teaching at Harvard. I was originally expecting that I would stay a year or two as an opportunity to reconnect with China. I found the potential and unique environment very appealing, however, and have now been based here for over a decade. Based on your ...

The admissions deadline recently passed for applicants applying to join the Hopkins-Nanjing Center this fall. For those of you who are considering applying in the future, the admissions team has compiled tips for ways you can strengthen your application over the coming year.  Continue studying Chinese Most importantly, continue working on your Chinese language skills! It’s great if you are able to enroll in Chinese classes or spend a semester abroad in an immersive language program. If that’s not possible for you, find ways to engage with the language on a regular basis, such as making a self-study plan, finding a language tutor, watching Chinese movies or TV shows, and reading Chinese news articles.  You are welcome to take the Hopkins-Nanjing Center’s STAMP Chinese Proficiency Test at any time, which is required for admission to all programs. Your scores are valid for one year, and you can take the test once every three months. Taking the test early can help gauge your...