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Wednesday, January 13, 2010

2011-2012 ideas

2011 is the year I plan to start my PhD research in China. Aside from the fact that the project is still really nebulous, here are some thoughts on things I (might) want to do during that time.

July - August: Lead a team for Amity Foundation's Summer English Program (volunteer English teacher to middle school English teachers in rural areas). This would be really cool, but Sarah is not keen on teaching, so trying to figure out how we could swing it.

August 23 - 28: AILA, Beijing

Sept - January (or entire schoolyear): Research based at a Chinese university.

Here's where it gets sketchy -- which university? Some options....

- Get my old job at Zhejiang University (or even Shaoxing!?)
- Go to one of UBC's partner universities:
Fudan
Peking
Shanghai Jiaotong
Uni. of Nottingham Ningbo (already know some people there)
- UBC also has some partners in Hong Kong: Chinese University of Hong Kong (didn't know much about their Eng ed/applx, but see that they do focus on World Englishes and have some well-known faculty) and Hong Kong University. The latter has a well-established research unit on English Education in China - could be an awesome place to be based, but not sure about the cost of living. Good thing about HK is their academic year matches up with UBC's, but Chinese universities don't.

Anyway! This is just the beginning. If I had to rank my preferences at this moment:

1. HKU
2. UNNC
3. ZJU
4. CUHK
5. Fudan/Peking/SHJT

FUNDING POSSIBILITIES:
- UBC scholarships from research office
- Fulbright? (Look into this) Would change the possible host institutions.
- Does the Chinese gov't give any money to stuff like this? Look into it
- RA for my profs research projects in China (Duff, Shi)
- Work PT at whichever university I go to (would have to be FT to get accommodation at ZJU, not sure if working for accommodation $ is the same at all these places) - would be great to get some undergrad courses at an EMI institution in Asia