By Li Han, Staff Writer

The Center for the Studies of European and American Literatures (CSEAL) was opened on March 27, the opening ceremony held that morning at Tsinghua University. Professor Cao Li became its first director.

The Centre works with the conviction that new ideas and efforts should be generated for studies in European and American Literatures in order to renew and develop the Tsinghua intellectual heritage of integrating the traditional and the modern, the Chinese and the Western. By developing and supporting new collaborative and interdisciplinary projects and activities within the university and beyond, the centre hopes to add to the vitality and integrity of its intellectual heritage and advance the teaching of and research in humanities and foreign studies.

Current research projects and forthcoming events include: "Cambridge Critics and Their Influence in China", "Translations in Cambridge Criticism", "Western Intellectual History and Civilization", "The Cultural Turn of Translation Studies", "F. R. Leavis and the Controversy on the Two Cultures", "Teaching and Learning English Literature", "Comparative Studies between Chinese and Western Cultures," "Literature and Religion", "Eco-criticism", "Culture Memory and Postcolonial Criticism", "Studies on English and American Modern Poetry", "Shakespeare and Modern Drama", "Tsinghua-Cambridge CRASSH Summer Fellow Program", "The 2011 Cambridge English and China Symposium", and "2013 Triennial IAUPE (International Association of University Professors of English) Conference".

(Photo by Cui Kai)