June 22-23, 2024, “Shanghai Jiao Tong University-University of Warwick Bilateral Forum 2024. Following the Footprints of Marco Polo: Workshop on the Occasion of the 700th Anniversary of Marco Polo’s Death” took place in the Auditorium of School of Humanities in the Minhang Campus of SJTU. The conference was organized by the History Department & International Affairs Division of SJTU, and Venice Center & International Strategy and Relations Office of University of Warwick.
In the opening ceremony, Mr. Hu Hao, the Director of the Publicity Department of SJTU, mentioned in his speech that SJTU will enhance its international cooperation with partner universities such as University of Warwick, not only in fields of engineering and technology but also in social sciences and humanities. Mr. Ai Ping, the Vice President of Chinese Association for International Understanding and the former Chinese Ambassador of Ethiopia, pointed out that Marco Polo, just like the Chinese travelers Xuanzang (602-664) and Xu Xiake (1587-1641), were pioneering figures in understanding different civilizations. Prof. Guo Changgang, acting as the chief-editor of Historical Review and an expert of Ancient Roman history, advised that SJTU should foster new disciplines such Global History and Area Studies. Prof. Liu Xiao, the President of Chinese Association of Yuan Dynasty History, gave a talk reviewing the history of Marco Polo studies in China and mentioned that the last international conference on Marco Polo in China was held in Nankai University. This time SJTU was chosen to organize the international Marco Polo symposium, showing that the history department of SJTU has made good progress in the past two decades.
More than twenty specialists on Marco Polo and relevant topics from renowned universities in China, England, Italy, Germany, Hungary, Croatia and Turkey, came to attend the conference, discussing about the significance of Marco Polo and his travel in the world history. The symposium consists of two keynote speeches and four panel discussion.
Prof. Luca Mola and Dr. Chen Hao made some concluding remarks in the closing ceremony. All participants have agreed to submit their papers before the deadline 31 Dec. 2024, in order to publish the conference proceedings both in English and Chinese. After one-and-half day’s intensive discussions, scholars spent a few hours in the Shanghai Museum and took a city walk in the center.
As a continuing activity of the bilateral agenda, Prof. Milija Gluhovic from Warwick will organize a summer school on the theme of Silk Road in Venice in the first week of this October. And around five people from SJTU both faculty and students will take part in this coming event. It is hoped that SJTU-Warwick Bilateral Form 2025 will be held in Coventry next year. And a high lever delegation led by the Deputy Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Warwick, Professor Gu Sai, and the renowned Global Historian Prof. Dr. Anne Gerritsen, will visit SJTU in July, discussing about the futural cooperation between the two partner universities.
Shanghai Jiao Tong University is not only a prestigious university for sciences and engineering, but also very strong in social sciences and humanities. In the presidential history of SJTU, there are many figures who had made great achievements in humanities, such as Zhang Yuanji (1867-1958), Shen Zengzhi (1850-1922) and Tang Wenzhi (1865-1954). As an alumnus of SJTU, Professor Dai Yi (1926-2024) became the leading historian on Qing dynasty in China and the world.
Link of the conference program: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/ily5f1IrMmFKG9HlvMBQOA