Foreign Exchange: China Scholars in the Archive

Catalog description

This course introduces students to archival research through the study of early Chinese international students and their admissions files at this college. Students learn how to read institutional records critically, paying attention to the fragments of their voices-and the voluminous silences-that shape what survives in the archive. Placing these materials alongside history, literature, film, and objects from special collections, the course examines how higher education was shaped by empire, missionary networks, gender, immigration law, and global politics in the early twentieth century. Students develop skills in close reading, interdisciplinary analysis, and connecting individual lives to global history and politics. The course emphasizes careful use of evidence and ethical reflection on what can-and cannot-be known about the past.