Colloquium 357 - Global Perceptions of China

China’s global engagement has increased dramatically since the early 2000s. In Global South countries, China provides significant opportunities for infrastructure development and a market for natural resources, as well as an alternative source of financing for development projects. However, engaging with China has downsides, including over-reliance on natural resources, exacerbating local corruption, and irritating the US. How, then, is China perceived in the Global South, and to what extent have Chinese investments led to goodwill or antipathy toward China? In this research tutorial, students will examine the emerging research on China’s role in Global South countries, with particular attention to the political, social, and environmental ramifications. Students will examine these issues and their broader implications for democracy, globalization, and great power competition. Students will engage in multidisciplinary research, utilizing both qualitative and quantitative sources of evidence. Students will devise research questions, write literature reviews, collect data, and test hypotheses. Students will be guided in utilizing publicly available sources, including secondary literature, the media, and existing public opinion surveys. In addition, students will have access to data from a survey on this topic that was recently conducted by the instructor.

This course is part of a model of tutorials at Amherst designed to enable students to engage in substantive research with faculty in the humanities and humanistic social sciences.

Open to sophomores and juniors interested in research. Limited to 6 students. Spring semester. Professor Ratigan.

How to handle overenrollment: Priority will be given to students with previous coursework in statistics. Students with reading knowledge of foreign languages, especially Spanish, Portuguese, or Mandarin Chinese.

Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: emphasis on written work, readings, independent research, group work, oral presentations, quantitative and qualitative analysis.