Center for the Study of Contemporary China (CSCC)

The Center for the Study of Contemporary China (CSCC) was established in 2012 at the University of Pennsylvania to advance Penn’s leadership in programs, research, and scholarship about the political, legal, economic, and social factors shaping China and its role in the world today. The Center sustains and extends the University’s work on and partnerships in China, providing an institutional home for campus-wide collaboration among departments, programs, institutes, faculty and students at Penn engaged in work pertaining to contemporary China. Activities include conferences, roundtables, and a speaker series. The Center also provides support for faculty and graduate student research and hosts visiting international scholars and prominent public leaders.

Penn has long been home to eminent scholars studying China, including those in the departments of Anthropology, Art History, East Asian Languages and Civilizations, History, History and Sociology of Science, Political Science, and Sociology, as well as in the Law School, the Wharton School, and the Annenberg School for Communications. Since 1995 Penn has also had an active Center for East Asian Studies (CEAS). The Center for the Study of Contemporary China (CSCC) was established in 2012 as an institution focused on the political, social, economic, and legal factors shaping China and its role in the world today. Based in the School or Arts and Sciences, the CSCC’s mission is highly interdisciplinary and reaches across many of Penn’s Schools. The CSCC brings together faculty and students from across the University’s departments, programs, centers, and schools interested in the changes unfolding in China and China’s place in the world as its international significance grows. Recognizing the importance of China’s history and the role of fields outside the social sciences in understanding contemporary China and its interactions with the outside world, CSCC complements existing strengths in those fields at Penn and welcomes the participation of those whose work draws on China’s past to understand the present, or whose work in the humanities and natural sciences illuminates the questions relevant to the CSCC’s purposes.