2008 Woodie Awards
Professor wins Fulbright to research in Beijing
Ashley Roberts
- Page 1 of 1
Every seven years, Drew University gives its political science professors a semester-long sabbatical to conduct research. Some stay in the Madison area, some go to Washington D.C. and some even travel to England. Professor Catherine Keyser went to China. Keyser, an associate professor of political science, received a year-long Fulbright Scholarship to study in Beijing. She left the United States in September and will return next July.
"I am associated with the Social Development and Public Policy Research Institute located at Beijing Normal University," Keyser said. "My research topic concerns the challenges of crafting child welfare policy in the course of China's transition."
"It is really exciting to have her get the grant and doing the research," Professor and Chair of the Political Science Department Phil Mundo said. "It is great for the University to have someone win a Fulbright Scholarship."
The Fulbright Scholar program, created in 1946, sends 800 U.S. faculty and professionals abroad each year, according to the Council for International Exchange for Scholars website. Funding for the programs comes from the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, part of the U.S. State Department.
"She is an excellent scholar," Mundo said. "To get a Fulbright Scholarship you have to demonstrate that your idea is worthy of federal funding." To apply for a Fulbright Scholarship, a researcher must submit a research proposal, he continued. Keyser also had to be invited by Beijing Normal University to do her research.
"As a Fulbright Scholar, you are open to a network of Fulbright Scholars around the world to help with your research and give you a place to study," Mundo said.
Keyser explained her research in an e-mail from Beijing.
"My research investigates how a political system such as China's creates new institutions for caring for members of society when the original system has been completely changed," she said. "Now that the state has pulled back and has developed a basically capitalist economic system, what happens to all of the social welfare provisions that the state once provided? This is especially interesting since China is still ruled by the Chinese Communist party."
Keyser elaborated on her area of study: "The research focuses on at-risk children," she said. At-risk children include those who are disabled, whose parents are in jail, victims of child abuse, homeless, "over-the-plan" young girls and children who are abandoned when their parents move in search of work, Keyser explained. "There are some 400,000 to 600,000 children living on the streets in the cities and the countryside for various reasons," she said.
Keyser's research also focuses on the foster care system of China and the country's child advocacy framework. "This particular topic became of interest to me during the course of my eight years experience of being a foster parent in New Jersey," she said.
Keyser is not new to the political climate of China and the rest of Asia.
"She has done work on Russia, China and Asia in general but her scholarship is on China. Her doctoral dissertation was in China," Mundo said.
"I have been a student of political transitions for many years, and particularly focused on China's move away from communism," Keyser said. "It is one of the great political stories of all time-though we aren't sure of the ending yet."
Keyser is also fluent in Chinese, though she said the country has changed since her last visit.
"The development has gone extremely fast and is a little disorienting," Keyser said.
"There is a saying that if you leave Beijing for more than six months, you must buy a new map when you return."
"You can now find pretty much anything you want or need in Beijing. But not far out [of the city,] the contrasts between those who have benefited and those who have not is very visible," she said.
"I've remembered how precious our right to access information and voice an opinion is in [the U.S.] where so often that is not the case [elsewhere.]"
When Keyser returns to Drew next fall, she will use her research in her classes.
"She might offer a class on social policy in China," Mundo said. "You spend all of that time researching it that you want to use it. It is fun to integrate it."
"I look forward to sharing my new insights into the political and economic changes in China," Keyser said.
"China's emergence as a major economic power is important to all of us, as is her stability as a nation of 1.3 billion people."
"I hope to bring back to Drew students some of the excitement and challenges facing China in the coming decades because I believe our future is linked with China's future.