Tsinghua Area Studies Forum Proceedings

Area Studies: New Realities, New Conceptions is the first in a series planned to be published by the Institute for International and Area Studies (IIAS) of Tsinghua University. The IIAS held its first Area Studies Forum in July 2019, with the theme of “Innovating New Approaches to Common Challenges in Asia, Africa and Latin America”. The chapters of this book have been developed from 9 papers which were presented at the Forum, to represent a range of area studies approaches and regions. The book seeks to create a link between IIAS researchers and those from elsewhere working on the Global South, and in the process to expand the boundaries of comparative area studies.

The IIAS strives to become a comprehensive area studies research institution, linked to China’s national aspirations while embracing a global perspective. It covers multiple disciplines and promotes a comparative area studies approach. It seeks to build area studies expertise based on sound academic research.

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(Please click the links for summaries of each chapter)

Introduction
Tim Niblock

Chapter 1 – Lessons from the Past, Perspectives for the Future
Tim Niblock

Chapter 2 – Reflections on the Challenges to the Development of Area Expertise
Graham Furniss

Chapter 3 – The Struggle of the Vietnamese People to Create a Unified Independent State: Theory and Practice of the Experience in the Colonial Period
Bi Shihong and Zhang Qiong

Chapter 4 – Ethnonationalism, Class Formation and Majority Hegemony in Postcolonial State-Building in Sri Lanka
Sisira Pinnawala

Chapter 5 – The Symbiosis of Individual and Society: an Anthropological Observation Regarding Tianguis in Mexico City
Li Yin

Chapter 6 – Ethnic and Tribal Factors in Kazakhstani Politics
Zheng Nan

Chapter 7 – The Road to Elite Higher Education for Brazilian Students with Low Socioeconomic Status
Zhou Yan

Chapter 8 – The Return of Refugees and the Reconstruction in Syria
Ibrahim Awad

Chapter 9 – Evaluating Special Economic Zones in South Africa: History, Performance and Challenges
Yang Chongsheng, Wang Yong, Anthony Black and Chen Meiying

Editors

Tim Niblock
Academic Committee Member and Co-chair of the Postdoctoral Programme at the Institute for International and Area Studies at Tsinghua University. He is also Emeritus Professor of Middle East Politics at the Institute for Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter.

Yang Guang
Director of the Institute for International and Area Studies at Tsinghua University, Distinguished Professor at Shanghai University, as well as President of the Chinese Association for Middle East Studies and Vice President of the Chinese Society of Asian and African Studies.

Zhou Yan
Assistant Research Professor at the Institute for International and Area Studies at Tsinghua University, as well as Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the Latin American Centre, St Antony’s College at the University of Oxford.

Table of Contents

Editors