TOChina Summer School

Introduction

In June 2022, 54 PhD candidates, graduate students, young scholars and professionals gathered online for the 16th edition of the TOChina Summer School: two high-powered weeks of advanced training in the politics, political economy and foreign policy of contemporary China.

The essence of the program lies in welcoming emerging China hands and China-literate practitioners from all over the world to one of Italy's most dynamic cities, whilst being exposed to valuable insights and cutting-edge research agendas by some of the world's most accomplished scholars on contemporary China.
‍
The 17th edition of the School will be held both in presence in Turin and Rome, Italy, and online from Monday June 26 to Friday July 7, 2023.

As ever with TOChina activities, the aim is to work at the intersection between China’s long-term structural transformations in socio-political, economic and cultural terms, and those particularly salient trends that are currently informing international debates on China.

To ensure the pluralism of disciplinary and intellectual perspectives presented throughout the course, TOChina Summer School faculty members are academics and policy experts from a variety of fields, including Economics, Economic History, International Relations, International Political Economy, Political Philosophy and Culture, Political Science, and Sociology.

Activities – including lectures, seminars, round tables, and extensive Q&A sessions – run Monday to Friday, 10.00 am to 5.30 pm CET.

The TOChina Summer School is suitable not only for participants wishing to study the domestic aspects of China’s politics, but also for those who intend to explore the rapidly evolving dynamics of Asian and global geopolitics and economics. For those looking for insights into future career options, the TOChina Summer School offers a unique opportunity to engage in lively debates with senior scholars who are often in charge of PhD programs in their country, and affiliated to a variety of organizations. The informal sessions participants join to acquire greater knowledge of the work of TOChina faculty members are a trademark of TOChina’s hands-on approach to the study of contemporary China.

The School is run by the TOChina Hub - a partnership between the University of Torino, ESCP Business School & the Torino World Affairs Institute (T.wai) - which is supported by two of Italy’s largest banking foundations, Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo and Fondazione CRT.

The 2022 TOChina Summer School was granted the patronage of the Italian Ministry for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and the 2023 edition has been granted the patronage of SISP, the Italian Political Science Association, and its Standing Group in International Relations.

**Updated information on the 2023 TOChina Summer School will be available by March 2023**
‍
Applications will be evaluated on a first come, first served basis.‍
To apply for the TOChina Summer School, please fill the online application form:

Application Form

The intellectual salon is a rara avis among those outside China who would come to grips with that country’s complex socio-political, regional and economic topography. TOChina offers a unique educational salon for engaged young scholars and professionals from various backgrounds in which they can learn about, discuss and debate the presence of China on the global stage. A salon with edge and purpose like the TOChina Summer School prepares participants for the real world of China today and tomorrow.

Prof. Geremie Barmé

TOChina engaged me in dialogues with both leading experts and young scholars of China studies in a truly multicultural context, where I made lifelong friends who share my own vision and passion for this field of research. The TOChina Summer School is indeed an empowering experience.

MS. WANG GERUI 王格睿
(TOChina alumna 2012)

The intellectual salon is a rara avis among those outside China who would come to grips with that country’s complex socio-political, regional and economic topography. TOChina offers a unique educational salon for engaged young scholars and professionals from various backgrounds in which they can learn about, discuss and debate the presence of China on the global stage. A salon with edge and purpose like the TOChina Summer School prepares participants for the real world of China today and tomorrow.

Prof. Geremie Barmé

TOChina engaged me in dialogues with both leading experts and young scholars of China studies in a truly multicultural context, where I made lifelong friends who share my own vision and passion for this field of research. The TOChina Summer School is indeed an empowering experience.

MS. WANG GERUI 王格睿 (TOChina alumna 2012)

Introduction

In June 2022, 54 PhD candidates, graduate students, young scholars and professionals gathered for the 16th edition of the TOChina Summer School: two high-powered weeks of advanced training in the politics, political economy and foreign policy of contemporary China.

A blog post on The China Story captures the essence of the program, where emerging China hands and China-literate practitioners from Australia, China, Germany, Greece, Italy, Macedonia, Pakistan, Romania, the UK, and the USA were welcomed to one of Italy’s most dynamic cities, being exposed to valuable insights and cutting-edge research agendas by some of the world’s most accomplished scholars on contemporary China.

The 17th edition of the School will be held both in presence in Turin and Rome, Italy, and online from Monday June 26 to Friday July 7, 2023.

As ever with TOChina activities, the aim is to work at the intersection between China’s long-term structural transformations in socio-political, economic and cultural terms, and those particularly salient trends that are currently informing international debates on China.

To ensure the pluralism of disciplinary and intellectual perspectives presented throughout the course, TOChina Summer School faculty members are academics and policy experts from a variety of fields, including Economics, Economic History, International Relations, International Political Economy, Political Philosophy and Culture, Political Science, and Sociology.

Activities – including lectures, seminars, round tables, and extensive Q&A sessions – run Monday to Friday, 10.00 am to 5.30 pm CET.
‍
The TOChina Summer School is suitable not only for participants wishing to study the domestic aspects of China’s politics, but also for those who intend to explore the rapidly evolving dynamics of Asian and global geopolitics and economics. For those looking for insights into future career options, the TOChina Summer School offers a unique opportunity to engage in lively debates with senior scholars who are often in charge of PhD programs in their country, and affiliated to a variety of organizations. The informal sessions participants join to acquire greater knowledge of the work of TOChina faculty members are a trademark of TOChina’s hands-on approach to the study of contemporary China.

The School is run by the TOChina Hub - a partnership between the University of Torino, ESCP Business School & the Torino World Affairs Institute (T.wai) - which is supported by two of Italy’s largest banking foundations, Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo and Fondazione CRT.

The 2022 TOChina Summer School was granted the patronage of the Italian Ministry for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and the 2023 edition has been granted the patronage of SISP, the Italian Political Science Association, and its Standing Group in International Relations.

**Updated information on the 2023 TOChina Summer School will be available by March 2023**

Applications will be evaluated on a first come, first served basis.
‍
To apply for the TOChina Summer School, please fill the online application form:

Application Form

timetable (2022)



time

Monday
27 JuNE

Tuesday
28 JUNE

Wednesday
29 JUNE

Thursday
30 JUNE

Friday
1 JULY

10.00
-
12.30

Patricia THORNTON

What does it mean to think Xi Jinping Thought?

Gianluca BONANNO

The Indo-Pacific in a post-liberal order: China, Japan and the new middle-powers

LIANG Yabin

What and whose international order? Views from China

FANG Jin

Developing the China Dream: the political economy of common prosperity

Kristin SHI-KUPFER

Online public discourse and ethics in China

lunch break

15.00
-
17.30

Stéphanie BALME

China's STI and party-nation building in the 21st Century

Patricia THORNTON
‍

Party life: the Chinese Communist Party and its grassroots organizations

Sébastien BILLIOUD

Yiguandao: spirituality and politics across the Sinophone oecumene

Sergey RADCHENKO

Sino-Russian relations from the Cold War to the present

Christian GÖBEL

Thinking outside the box: the politics and political economy of regime stability in China

Opening Aperitif

City tour in Turin

time

Monday
4 JULY

Tuesday
5 JULY

Wednesday
6 JULY

Thursday
7 July

Friday
8 July

10.00
-
12.30

Florian SCHNEIDER

China’s digital nationalism: narratives, technological affordance, practice

Katherine MORTON

China and International Peace and Security: the case of Ukraine

Chris ALDEN

A common destiny? China and the Global South

Christopher McNALLY

Chinese economic statecraft in a time of crisis: liberal, statist, or both?

ChinaMed Roundtable

Like rice plants: China’s policies of differentiation in the wider Mediterranean Region

lunch break

15.00
-
17.30

Evan FEIGENBAUM

After Ukraine: China-Russia relations as seen from Inner Asia

Evan FEIGENBAUM

Whither Indo-Pacific under Biden? Regional responses to Sino-US rivalry

Andrew SCOBELL

China and Grand Strategy: is Beijing playing a ‘Long Game’?

Andrew SCOBELL

China’s global military posture: Great Power lite?

Ori SELA

Sino-Israeli relations: convergence of sci-tech, security, and global geostrategy

Farewell Aperitif

Faculty & Sessions (2022)

Mohammed AL-SUDAIRI

KING FAISAL CENTER FOR RESEARCH AND ISLAMIC STUDIES

Mohammed Al-Sudairi is a non-resident Senior researcher and Head of the Asian Studies Unit. He has a PhD in Comparative Politics from the University of Hong Kong, a double degree (masters) from Peking University and the London School of Economics in international relations and international history, and an undergraduate degree in international politics from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. He is fluent in Arabic, English, and Mandarin. His research interests encompass Sino-Middle Eastern relations, Islamic and leftist connections between East Asia and the Arab World, and Chinese politics.

CHINAMED ROUNDTABLE: Like rice plants: China’s policies of differentiation in the wider Mediterranean Region

Chris ALDEN

London School of Economics and Political Science

Dr Chris Alden teaches International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science and is Director of LSE IDEAS. He is a Research Associate with the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA). He has published widely on China-Africa relations including China in Africa (Zed 2007), co-edited China Returns to Africa (Hurst 2008) and is co-author of The South in World Politics (Palgrave 2010) and South Africa’s Post-Apartheid Foreign Policy (Oxford 2003). He taught at the University of the Witwatersrand from 1990 to 2000.

LECTURE: A common destiny? China and the Global South

Giovanni B. ANDORNINO

UNIVERSITY OF TURIN & T.WAI - Torino world affairs institute

A tenured Assistant Professor of International Relations of East Asia at the University of Turin, Dr Giovanni B. Andornino (欧阳乔) is the Director of the TOChina Centre and the founding General Secretary of the China-Italy Philanthropy Forum. Dr Andornino is Vice President and Head of the Global China program at the Torino World Affairs Institute (T.wai), Director of the ChinaMed Business Program at Peking University (Beijing), and Editor of OrizzonteCina, Italy's leading academic journal on contemporary China studies in the social sciences. His research focuses on China’s domestic politics, foreign policy, and relations with Italy and the wider Euro-Mediterranean region.

Stéphanie BALME

Sciences Po Paris

Stéphanie Balme is Professor Dean at Sciences Po Paris (CERI/PSIA), former visiting Professor at Columbia University (Law School) and at the Tsinghua University School of Law (Beijing), former scientific attachée at the French Embassy in Beijing and consultant for various international organizations. Her books (10) and articles have been published in French, Chinese and English. Vice-president and co-founder of the European China Law Studies Association (ECLS) as well as the European Science Diplomacy Initiative (ESDI), Balme currently teaches Science Diplomacy, China's science, technology and innovation (STI) and US-EU-China relations.

LECTURE: China's STI and party-nation building in the 21st Century

Sébastien BILLIOUD

UNIVERSITé Paris cité

Sébastien Billioud is Professor of Chinese studies at Université Paris Cité. Based on a cross-disciplinary approach, his research explores the modern and contemporary fates of Confucianism. His main works include Thinking through Confucian Modernity (Brill, 2012), The Sage and the People (with Joël Thoraval, Oxford University Press, 2015), The Varieties of Confucian Experience (Brill, 2018), Reclaiming the Wilderness, Contemporary Dynamics of the Yiguandao (Oxford University Press, 2020) and From Taiwan to the World: The Globalization of Yiguandao in the 21st Century (in Chinese and in collaboration with Yang Hung-jen, Chengchi University Press, 2022, in press).

LECTURE: Yiguandao: spirituality and politics across the Sinophone oecumene

Gianluca BONANNO

International Peace and Sustainability Organization

Gianluca Bonanno is the president of the International Peace and Sustainability Organization (IPSO), while also serving as associate professor and head of research for its think-tank. He's a research fellow at the Torino World Affairs Institute (T.wai) and an adjunct professor at Kyoto University. His other commitments include consultant positions at the Mekong River Commission Secretariat, the Asian Development Bank, the International Criminal Police Organisation, Rotary International, as well as periodic academic and consultant positions at various institutions in Asia, Europe and Northern America. His main research interests are in trans-boundary issues in the Greater Mekong Sub-region; international relations in the Indo-Pacific; and the political economy of Japan in Asia.

LECTURE: The Indo-Pacific in a post-liberal order: China, Japan and the new middle-powers

FANG Jin

China Development Research Foundation

Dr. Fang Jin is Vice Chairman and Secretary General of China Development Research Foundation and also a research fellow at the Development Research Center (DRC) of the State Council, People’s Republic of China. His main area of research is China’s economic relations with the outside world; he has written extensively on China’s foreign economic policy, globalization and world economy. Before joining DRC, Dr. Fang had worked in the corporate sector for many years. He holds a Doctoral degree from School of Economics, Peking University and a Master Degree and a Bachelor of Economics from Macquarie University in Australia.

LECTURE: Developing the China Dream: the political economy of common prosperity

Evan FEIGENBAUM

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Evan A. Feigenbaum is vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where he oversees research in Washington, Beijing, and New Delhi on a dynamic region encompassing both East Asia and South Asia. He was also the 2019-20 James R. Schlesinger Distinguished Professor at the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia, where he is now a practitioner senior fellow. Initially an academic with a PhD in Chinese politics from Stanford University, Feigenbaum’s career has spanned government service, think tanks, the private sector, and three major regions of Asia. He is the author of three books and monographs, including The United States in the New Asia (CFR, 2009, co-author) and China’s Techno-Warriors: National Security and Strategic Competition from the Nuclear to the Information Age (Stanford University Press, 2003), which was selected by Foreign Affairs as a best book of 2003 on the Asia-Pacific, as well as numerous articles and essays.

LECTURE: After Ukraine: China-Russia relations as seen from Inner Asia

LECTURE: Whither Indo-Pacific under Biden? Regional responses to Sino-US rivalry

Enrico FARDELLA

PEKING UNIVERSITY & T.WAI - TORINO WORLD AFFAIRS INSTITUTE

Enrico Fardella is an Associate Professor of the History Department of Peking University (Beijing, China) and Director of the Center for Mediterranean Area Studies of Peking University. A Global Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, Dr. Fardella is Director for Area Studies of the ChinaMed Business Program and Advisor of the ChinaMed Project. His research interests range from Chinese foreign policy, to History of international relations, and History of contemporary China.

CHINAMED ROUNDTABLE: Like rice plants: China’s policies of differentiation in the wider Mediterranean Region

Brandon FRIEDMAN

Moshe Dayan Center, tEL AVIV unIVERSITY

Brandon Friedman, Ph.D, is the Director of Research at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle East and African Studies at Tel Aviv University. Brandon is also the Managing Editor of the Dayan Center’s journal Bustan: The Middle East Book Review. His research interests include contemporary Middle East geopolitical and historical analysis, the history of nuclear weapons in the Middle East, and the modern history of Saudi Arabia. Brandon’s PhD research focused on the political relations between the rulers of the Persian Gulf littoral during the period of British military withdrawal from the region (1968 to 1971).

CHINAMED ROUNDTABLE: Like rice plants: China’s policies of differentiation in the wider Mediterranean Region

Andrea GHISELLI

FUDAN unIVERSITY & T.WAI - TORINO WORLD AFFAIRS INSTITUTE

Andrea Ghiselli is an Assistant Professor at the School of International Relations and Public Affairs of Fudan University. He’s also the Head of Research of the TOChina Hub’s ChinaMed Project. His research interests include Chinese foreign policy, China’s relations with Middle Eastern countries, as well as theories of foreign policy analysis. His research has appeared in many peer-reviewed journals, and his book Protecting China's Interests Overseas: Securitization and Foreign Policy was published by Oxford University Press in 2021.

CHINAMED ROUNDTABLE: Like rice plants: China’s policies of differentiation in the wider Mediterranean Region

Christian GÖBEL

unIVERSITY of vienna

Christian Göbel is Professor for Contemporary Chinese Studies at the University of Vienna. He is the Principal Investigator of the EU-funded research project "The Microfoundations of Authoritarian Responsiveness: E-Participation, Social Unrest and Public Policy in China". A political scientist and sinologist by training, his research is concerned with the adaptability of the Chinese Party-State to social, economic and political challenges. He is especially interested in effects of digital technology on local governance in China. Dr. Göbel is the author of "The Politics of Rural Reform in China" and co-author of "The Politics of Community Building in Urban China". In addition, he has published on popular protest, rural reforms and central-local relations in China as well as corruption in Taiwan. He is currently preparing a book manuscript on participation, repression and state power in China.

LECTURE: Thinking outside the box: the politics and political economy of regime stability in China

LIANG Yabin

CENTRAL PARTY SCHOOL OF THE CPC

Liang Yabin is currently professor of the Institute for International Strategic Studies, Party School of the Central Committee of the C.P.C. He earned his Ph.D. in International Relations from Peking University (2011). Dr. Liang’s other professional activities include: visiting student at Cornell University (from Sept. 2009 to Sept. 2010), sponsored by the China Scholarship Council; short term training at Senior School of Economics and Finance, Italy, sponsored by the Italian Government (2012); member of the Voluntary Visitor Program of the United States Department of State (2012). His areas of research and teaching specialization include international politics, Sino-U.S. Relations, Smart Weapons and International Relations. He is the author of The Secret of Hegemony: Financial Logic Behind American Power. He has also published dozens of articles in Chinese journals.

lecture: What and whose international order? Views from China

Christopher McNALLY

Chaminade University & East-West Center

Christopher A. McNally is a Professor of Political Economy at Chaminade University and Adjunct Senior Fellow at the East-West Center in Honolulu, USA. His research focuses on comparative capitalisms, especially the nature and logic of China’s capitalist transition and Sino-Capitalism. He is also working on a research project that studies the implications of China’s international reemergence on the global order. He has held fellowships conducting fieldwork and research at the Asia Research Centre in West Australia, the Institute of Asia Pacific Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences. He received his Ph.D. in political science from the University of Washington.

lecture: Chinese economic statecraft in a time of crisis: liberal, statist, or both?

Katherine MORTON

Schwarzman College, Tsinghua University

Katherine Morton is Professor of Global Affairs at the Schwarzman College (Tsinghua University), an Associate of the China Centre at the University of Oxford and an Associate Fellow at Chatham House. Professor Morton is a specialist on China and international relations with a particular focus on global governance, environment and climate change, and security studies. Her research addresses the domestic and international motivations behind China’s changing role in the world and the implications for foreign policy and the study of International Relations.

lecture: China and international peace and security: the case of Ukraine

Aelius PARCHAMI

Royal Military Academy Sandhurst

Dr Aelius Parchami is a Senior Lecturer in Defence & International Affairs at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. Educated at Oxford, he previously held a Stipendiary Lectureship in Politics at Exeter College in the University of Oxford and was a Visiting Lecturer in Politics & International Relations at the University of Reading. With a research portfolio that traverses the disciplines of History, International Relations and Regional Studies, he has published on the themes of empire and hegemony, the liberal international order, and strategic developments in the Middle East.

chinamed roundtable: Like rice plants: China’s policies of differentiation in the wider Mediterranean Region

Sergey RADCHENKO

Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies

Sergey Radchenko is the Wilson E. Schmidt Distinguished Professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He has written extensively on the Cold War, nuclear history, and on Russian and Chinese foreign and security policies. He has served as a Global Fellow and a Public Policy Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Centre and as the Zi Jiang Distinguished Professor at East China Normal University (Shanghai). Professor Radchenko’s books include Two Suns in the Heavens: the Sino-Soviet Struggle for Supremacy (Wilson Center Press & Stanford UP, 2009) and Unwanted Visionaries: the Soviet Failure in Asia (Oxford UP, 2014). Professor Radchenko is a native of Sakhalin Island, Russia, was educated in the US, Hong Kong, and the UK, where he received his PhD in 2005 (LSE).

LECTURE: Sino-Russian relations from the Cold War to the present

Florian SCHNEIDER

Leiden UniversitY

Florian Schneider, PhD, Sheffield University, is Senior University Lecturer in the Politics of Modern China at the Leiden University Institute for Area Studies. He is managing editor of Asiascape: Digital Asia, director of the Leiden Asia Centre, and the author of three books: Staging China: the Politics of Mass Spectacle (Leiden University Press, 2019, recipient of the ICAS Book Prize 2021 Accolades), China’s Digital Nationalism (Oxford University Press, 2018), and Visual Political Communication in Popular Chinese Television Series (Brill, 2013, recipient of the 2014 EastAsiaNet book prize). In 2017, he was awarded the Leiden University teaching prize for his innovative work as an educator. His research interests include questions of governance, political communication, and digital media in China, as well as international relations in the East-Asian region.

LECTURE: China’s digital nationalism: narratives, technological affordance, practice

Andrew SCOBELL

U.S. Institute of Peace

Andrew Scobell is distinguished fellow for China at the U.S. Institute of Peace, adjunct political scientist at the RAND Corporation, and adjunct professor at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He previously he served on the faculty of the George H. W. Bush School of Government and Public Service and as director of the China certificate program at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. From 1999 until 2007, Scobell was a research professor in the Strategic Studies Institute at the U.S. Army War College and adjunct professor of political science at Dickinson College, both located in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He earned a doctorate in political science from Columbia University.

LECTURE: China and Grand Strategy: is Beijing playing a ‘Long Game’?

LECTURE: China’s Global Military Posture: Great Power lite?

CHINAMED ROUNDTABLE: Like rice plants: China’s policies of differentiation in the wider Mediterranean Region

Ori SELA

Tel Aviv University

Ori Sela is a researcher and senior lecturer in the Department of East Asian Studies at Tel Aviv University, of which he is currently the Chair. He specializes in the history of Early-Modern and Modern China, and is interested particularly in the reciprocal relationship between intellectual history and socio-political history at various crossroads in China's past. The transition from China's imperial era into the nation-state building of the twentieth century, along with the crucial roles history has played and continues to play in current affairs, is another facet of his research and teaching. He works on the history of science and technology in China and is likewise interested in China's military history. Sela received his PhD from Princeton University, published in leading journals, and his 2018 book was awarded the renowned 2020 Levenson Prize.

LECTURE: Sino-Israeli relations: convergence of sci-tech, security, and global geostrategy

CHINAMED ROUNDTABLE: Like rice plants: China’s policies of differentiation in the wider Mediterranean Region

Kristin SHI-KUPFER

UNIVERSITY OF TRIER & MERICS

Kristin Shi-Kupfer is Professor for Contemporary China Studies at the University of Trier and a Senior Associate Fellow at MERICS. She previously worked as a research associate at the University of Freiburg’s Institute for Sinology. Dr. Shi-Kupfer is an expert on China’s digital society and politics, media policy, civil society and human rights. She earned her PhD from Ruhr University Bochum with a thesis on spiritual and religious groups in China after 1978. From 2007 to 2011 she was based in Beijing covering China for various German-speaking media like the Austrian magazine Profil, the German Protestant Press Agency epd or the public radio station Deutsche Welle. Since 2019 she is a member of the Sino-German Working Group on Digital Business Models initiated by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy and Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

lecture: Online public discourse and ethics in China

Patricia THORNTON

University of OXFORD

Patricia M. Thornton is a political scientist whose research interests span the political, socio-economic, and cultural history of modern China. She received her PhD in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley, and previously served as the Director of the Institute for Asian Studies at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon. She is an Associate Professor of Chinese Politics at the University of Oxford.

lecture: What does it mean to think Xi Jinping Thought?

lecture: Party life: the Chinese Communist Party and its grassroots organizations

Yahia ZOUBIR

KEDGE Business School & Middle East Council on Global Affairs, Doha

Yahia H. Zoubir is Professor of International Relations and International Management, and Director of Research in Geopolitics at KEDGE Business School. He has been international visiting faculty in numerous universities and business schools for the last 30 years in China, the United States, and various European and Asian countries (China, Indonesia, and Korea). He has published dozens of scholarly works, including books, articles, entries in encyclopedias, and book chapters in international politics, foreign policy, governance, and security issues. He has served as consultant for governments and companies worldwide. In 2020, he was Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Doha Center in Qatar. In addition to his teaching, he serves as Non-Resident Fellow at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs, MECGA in Doha, Qatar.

CHINAMED ROUNDTABLE: Like rice plants: China’s policies of differentiation in the wider Mediterranean Region

TOCHINA SUMMER SCHOOL - Previous editions

Key Dates

20 FEBRUARY

The TOChina Centre begins accepting online applications for the 2023 edition of the TOChina Summer School.

Applications will be reviewed on a first-come, first-served basis.

31 MAY

All complete applications reaching the TOChina Program Manager by this date (CET) are evaluated. No late application will be considered.

12 june

By this date the last successful applicants receiving an offer must formally accept it and send proof of fees payment (direct bank transfer, all banking expenses must be paid by the candidate) via email. Upon receiving these, the TOChina Program Manager will confirm the candidate’s enrollment. Applicants who should fail to meet this deadline will have their offer withdrawn.

26 june

The 2023 TOChina Summer School begins in Turin.

5 juLY

The class is expected to travel from Turin to Rome, for the last part of the Summer School.

7 july

The 2023 TOChina Summer School ends in Rome.

Admissions Criteria

The TOChina Summer School is designed for highly motivated students and professionals looking for one of the world’s best intensive programs focussing on the politics, society, political economy and foreign policy of contemporary China. A careful selection of up to 60 students is carried out in order to make sure that the School’s working environment is as dynamic and challenging as possible. The Admissions Committee focuses on the following factors in reaching its decisions:

1. the applicant’s capacity to make a credible claim for a proficient research/professional career with China;

2. sound academic credentials and fluency in English;

3. individual potential as expressed by the applicant’s CV;

4. the candidate’s motivation as articulated in the personal statement.

Applications are welcome from any professional or student who is in possession of the required qualifications. These are a Bachelor honours degree at 1 or 2:1 level (or an equivalent European title, such as the Laurea triennale for Italian students with a minimum grade of 100/110) and full command of the English language. Special consideration will be given to applicants who can demonstrate their English ability in the following ways:

1. being of a nationality where English is the first language;

2. having studied at university level in English as shown on the transcript uploaded in the Online Application form;

3. having studied English at school (e.g., GCSE, A-Level, International Baccalaureate…) and achieved good grades;

4. having taken an approved English Language test and met the following standards: IELTS – 6.5; TOEFL (Internet based) – 100 points; TOEFL (Computer based) – 250 points; TOEFL (Paper based) – 600 points; Cambridge Advanced English (CAE) – Pass; Cambridge Proficiency in English (CPE) – Pass.

Outstanding undergraduate students (i.e. students who will not yet have a degree at the start of the Summer School) who are enrolled in a university course with a strong China focus may also apply, provided that they have completed at least one year of course.

auditors

In order to render the TOChina Summer School at least temporarily accessible to students and professionals who are unable to attend the entire duration of the course (2 weeks), a maximum of 15 auditors will be admitted online for each session.

Anyone can apply to audit one or more sessions. Unsuccessful Summer School applicants too may re-apply as auditors. There is no restriction on the number of sessions a single auditor may attend. The cost for attending each session as auditors is EUR 100.00.

Those wishing to apply as auditors should send an email with their updated résumé or CV to the TOChina Program Manager (summerschool@tochina.it) indicating which session(s) they would like to attend (day, time, lecturer).

fees

Tuition fees depend on the status of the applicant and the mode of participation (in presence in Turin or online), as shown by the following chart:

Applicant status

FEES

Students from University of Torino
and from partner institutions:

Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales - INALCO
John Cabot University
University of Trier
TOChina Alumni & Academic Network

Students who wish to participate online

EUR 690.00

All other students

EUR 890.00

Professionals

EUR 1,590.00

These amounts cover tuition and working materials only, and must be paid in full by all admitted participants ahead of joining the program.

Selections of participants from specific partner institutions are regulated through ad-hoc agreements with such institutions.

scholarships

(nOT APPLICABLE FOR ONLINE PARTICIPANTS)

Students only may apply for the following type of scholarship:

• FREETORINO: scholarships covering accommodation and, partially, meals. Those who are awarded a FREETORINO scholarship will be lodged at one of Torino’s student halls (or similar kind of accommodation). A single or double (depending on availability) en-suite room and one meal per day (dinner) will be provided. These scholarships may be applied for by all School participants who are currently students (i.e. undergraduates who will not have completed their China-related degree at the time of the School, or applicants who either are studying at the postgraduate level or will be doing so in the next academic year).

Applicants must not be resident in the Province of Torino (IT).

To be awarded a TOChina Summer School scholarship, candidates must:
• be currently enrolled in a university course, either as postgraduate or undergraduate students. The latter need to be enrolled in a university degree with a strong China focus;
• be residing outside the province of Torino;
• send relevant application documents: copy of CV, copy of university enrollment certificate, copy of most recent academic transcript;
• have paid their fees in full;
• have attended a minimum of 40 hours of lectures/seminars;
• have achieved at least a “pass” grade in the final exam.

If not all conditions are met, scholarship recipients will be asked to reimburse the expenses for accommodation and meals by Fall.

how to apply

Competition to secure a place in this program can be very intense: early application is strongly recommended.
Applications will be reviewed on a first-come, first-served basis. No applications will be accepted beyond the deadline defined in the "Key Dates" section.

Applicants are requested to fill in the online application form.

Upon receiving candidates’ online application, the TOChina Program Manager will request supplementary documents (CV, enrollment letter, academic transcript, scanned copy of passport) via email, will check that compulsory requirements are met and pass their application package on to the Admissions Committee, which will be appointed by the Director of the Department of Culture, Politics and Society of the University of Torino, where the TOChina Hub is based.

Successful applicants receiving an offer must formally accept it and send proof of fees payment (direct bank transfer) via email to the TOChina Program Manager at summerschool@tochina.it by the set deadline (see the Key Dates section). Upon receiving these, the applicant will be officially enrolled in the program.

Applicants who should fail to send such confirmation and proof of fees payment by the set deadline will have their offer withdrawn. Any newly-available place will be offered to the highest-ranking applicants not selected in the first round.

Tuition fees range between EUR 690.00 and EUR 1,590.00, depending on the type of applicant (student, professional…). Please see the Fees section of this website for further information. All successful applicants must pay their full fees.

Applicants may be called for an interview before a final decision on their application is made.

All candidates will be notified of the outcome of their application at the earliest possible time.

Torino, Travel and Accommodation

Torino, the first capital city of united Italy in 1861, is an ancient place. Established by the Romans with a distinctive rectangular grid which mesmerizes visitors to this day, each moment in history has left its mark on the city, generating a legacy of culture, architecture and monuments. In 2012 the New York Times devoted to Torino one of its “36 hours in…” pieces.

The Torino 2006 Olympic Winter Games showcased a cosmopolitan city, still attached to its industrial tradition – the now global FCA car manufacture was founded here – while transforming into an Italian hub of technological and cultural innovation with a high quality of life. The UN System has its Staff College here (UNSSC), together with the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI) and the International Training Centre of the International Labour Organization (ITC-ILO). UNESCO has recently approved the creation of a centre for research on world cultural heritage to be based in the baroque Venaria Reale palace, one of several world heritage sites in the area.

World-renowned Juventus football club – one of Torino’s glories – has its brand-new Stadium in town, alongside the world’s second-largest Egyptian antiques museum after Cairo (Museo Egizio), the Automobile Museum, the Cinema Museum (few know that in the early days cinema was being developed here), and the Mountain Museum (Museo Nazionale della Montagna), aptly located on Torino’s hills overlooking the Alps. Torino’s region – Piedmont (Piemonte) – means “at the feet of the mountains” and Europe’s most charming peaks are within a couple of hours drive.

Sampling the local cuisine is a cultural must in Torino. Its informal trattoria, refinded top-end restaurants and exotic ethnic eateries make the city one of the undisputed world capitals of taste, including for its illustrious wine scene, whether one is looking for whites (Gavi, Arneis, Moscato), superb reds (Dolcetto, Grignolino, Barbera, Nebbiolo, Barbaresco and Barolo), or even sparkling wines, which, through Martini & Rossi, gave rise to the tradition of Asti Spumante.

Seemingly closer to the Northern European no-nonsense, hard-working style than it is to Italy’s Mediterranean allure, Torino transforms at sunset: by aperitif time the streets are lit up and buzzing with people enjoying live jazz, exclusive dj sets, the local philharmonic orchestra performances, theatre and opera, but also shows, cabaret, literary cafes, street festivals and crazy notti bianche, all night non-stop events that animate the city streets until dawn.

GETTING TO KNOW TORINO AND ITS REGION

Torino Piemonte

arriving in town

By plane (Milan)By plane (Torino)

MOVING AROUND

Public Transport Car-sharing

Trenitalia (Train)Italo (Train)Motorway

MOVING AROUND

Public Transport Car-sharing Trenitalia (Train)Italo (Train)Motorway

Accommodation in Torino (not APPLICABLE FOR ONLINE EDITION)

As explained in the “Fees and Scholarships” section, TOChina staff will provide accommodation for the applicants who qualify for the Freetorino scholarship. All other participants will have to organize their stay in Torino independently. TOChina staff will do their best to advise successful applicants as they seek adequate accommodation in town.

The following links may be a useful first port-of-call.

Sportello CASA Service Collegio Universitario Einaudi Turismo Torino ReSocialClub

As for meals, all participants will be given a dossier during induction with a list of venues for all budgets, together with other useful tips.

For local transport information, best to log on to the GTT transport group. Please note that the venue of the Summer School – though located in the city centre – may not be within walking distance of your accommodation.

faqs and contacts

Please note that our FAQs are updated on a regular basis and the majority of enquiries tend to be answered there. The TOChina Program Manager may choose not to reply to queries that are clearly answered here.

Due to international time differences, we strongly advise you to contact the TOChina Program Manager by email. We answer email enquiries every day. Should you need to contact TOChina by telephone, please email the TOChina Program Manager to fix an appointment.

The email address for enquiries on the TOChina Summer School is
summerschool@tochina.it.

We will respond as soon as possible to your email enquiry. However, please be aware that during peak periods the office is very busy and there may be a turnaround time of approximately 48 hours.

The TOChina Hub Manager is Mr. Kavinda Navaratne. Upon appointment, arranged via email, he may be reached at:

Room 1D325, “LUIGI EINAUDI” CAMPUS, LUNGODORA SIENA 100/A TORINO – ITALY

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