SHANXI UNIVERSITY AND CLAREMONT UNIVERSITY SET UP A JOINT RESEARCH CENTER FOR SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT AND POST MODERN THOUGHT

Shanxi University held a ceremony to announce the establishment of Shanxi University-Claremont University Joint Research Center for Social Development and Post modern Thought on October the 27th. In the ceremony, the President of Shanxi University, Guo Guichun, issued letters of appointment to Professor Clifford, a senior research fellow from Process Research Center of Claremont University, and Professor Wang Zhihe, the director of China Division of PRCCU, accepting them as visiting professors. Vice President Xing Long addressed the opening speech.

Professor Clifford and Professor Wang Zhihe introduced the Process Research Center of Claremont University (Institute of Sino-US Post-modern Development) to their counterparts in Shanxi University. They expressed their desire to work together with colleagues from Shanxi University to give the research center full power to strengthen Sino-US academic exchanges and to carry out research on major issues worldwide. They also hoped that the research center would help to promote the academic and cultural prosperity in both China and the US, thus making a positive contribution to the harmonious development of the whole world. After the ceremony, the visiting professors delivered two academic lectures and exchanged ideas with teachers and students from Shanxi University on topics such as Marxism and socialism in US since 1960s, and post-modern thought and practice.

Taking Whiteheadian philosophy as its standpoint, the US Process Research Center (Institute of Sino-US Post-Modern Development) is an academic research organization dedicated to promoting research in the field of process thinking and constructive post-modernism. The center is now the world headquarters of process thinking studies. Since its establishment, the center has set up several branch research centers around the world, with a membership of more than 2,000. China Division, one of the center s departments, has established research institutions in Beijing, Wuhan, Xi'an, Yancheng, Suzhou, Zhanjiang, Taiyuan and other places in China. Senior Visiting Scholar Program and Post-doctoral Research Program offered by the center will support Chinese scholars who are interested in using process thinking while conducting their research, or preparing to deliver lectures in Claremont University.