Confucius Institute at The University of Iowa

NEWS FLASH - FALL 2008 Session II Community Classes Begin in October!

Professor Ke, Director of The UI Confucius Institute, with Madame Xu Lin, Director General of Hanban at a meeting in Chicago April 24, 2006.

Message from the Director - Ke Chuanren

The Confucius Institute at The University of Iowa is a collaborative project between The University of Iowa and The Office of Chinese Language Council International (Hanban) and East China Normal University (ECNU) in Shanghai. The Institute, which is part of University of Iowa International Programs, draws upon the considerable expertise and resources in a number of colleges and units at The University of Iowa, including the following: College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Ph.D. Program in Second Language Acquisition (FLARE), College of Education, Graduate College, College of Law, and Office of Vice President for Research.

The Institute is comprised of three sub-units:

A center for Chinese language and culture that promotes Chinese language study and culture exchange;
An international center for the study of Chinese as a foreign language to train Chinese language teachers and to study critical issues and solve problems that we are encountering in our daily Chinese language education to CFL learners;
A new international journal devoted to the advancement of theory and research in the learning and teaching of Chinese as a second or foreign language in the world.

Board of Trustees for the Confucius Institute

Downing Thomas, Chair
Associate Provost and Dean of International Programs at UI

James Watson
Professor of Anthropology, Harvard University

Mark Sidel
Professor of Law, The University of Iowa

Bao Tongzeng
Consul, Consulate General of China in Chicago

Zang Kehe
Professor of Chinese, Director of Center for the Studies of Chinese, Characters and their Applications, East China Normal University

Qian Jin
Supervisor, ADV Analysis, Corporate PV & V, John Deere Company, Milan, IL