Lectures and Teaching

To teach is to learn. My early experiences date back to high school, where a history teacher encouraged me to “prepare” lectures (we even recorded them on cassette tapes!). In fact, my interest in China probably stems from the value that Chinese culture places on education in all forms and at all levels.

For Elementary and High School Students

For Grace Lutheran, a Chicago-area elementary school, I worked in Oak Park, Illinois with friends to develop curricula and teach two summer enrichment courses for elementary school children, one on Chinese culture, and one that included constructing a life-sized baby beluga whale!

For the Sackler Gallery of Asian art at the Smithsonian, I developed and led a yearlong course for Chinese American high school students to prepare and install an exhibit on Chinese funerary practices. Click here to find out more.

For Undergraduate and Graduate Students

For Boston University’s Overseas Graduate Program in International Relations in Europe, I devised and taught courses for three years to train career diplomats and military officers, which included analyzing foreign policy using newspapers in several different languages. (I also taught a similar course for one year to German students at the University of Mainz.)

For the University of Cincinnati, I developed and taught several courses on international negotiation in which MBA students utilized the “Getting to Yes” principles in mock negotiations and interacted with real-life company presidents, international lawyers, and others from the local business community.

For Institutions

For the Library of Congress, I facilitated focus groups for reference librarians and scholars, to brainstorm about “The Library of the Future.”

For the Kluge Center (also at the Library of Congress), I delivered public presentations to support the work of the scholars and, at the invitation of the Center’s Kissinger Scholar, even went to East China Normal University in Shanghai to lecture on my own scholarly research.

For the State Department’s Foreign Service Institute, I developed a program manual (in English) for teaching foreign service officers about Chinese society; and for Procter and Gamble, I developed a curriculum packet for senior managers to practice “the art of competitive defense.”

For Lifetime Learners

For several years, I led international relations study groups (using the “Great Decisions” program format) for the League of Women Voters.

Upon request, I do cooking demos for Chinese and Chinese Americans who want to learn how to cook Western-style food.

For 40 Plus of Greater Washington, a professional development not-for-profit organization, I have facilitated job-training classes for five years.

In September 2010, I will teach “Chinese American History: The Roles of Women” at Johns Hopkins University and Towson University in Baltimore for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.