Associate Professor Yidi Wu in the Department of History and Geography will serve for two years in the national nonprofit’s highly competitive Public Intellectuals Program.
Yidi Wu, Elon University’s O’Briant Developing Professor in the Department of History and Geography, has been selected as a fellow in the Public Intellectuals Program of the National Committee on United States-China Relations.
The fellowship supports the next generation of China specialists and helps them engage with the American public. The program is designed to deepen fellows’ understanding of policymaking in both countries, strengthen relationships with academic and policy leaders, and build skills for public engagement.
Wu will join 19 other fellows for workshops in Washington, D.C., on the West Coast and in Asia, including China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Southeast Asia. The fellows will meet with policymakers, participate in media training and receive support to organize U.S. – China events in their local communities.
“I am very honored to be selected for this competitive program, and I envision several ways to contribute to Elon and the community through the program,” Wu said.
Wu plans to host a China Town Hall event on campus in collaboration with PIP to spark student engagement with contemporary China. She is also in discussions with LIFE@Elon about delivering a talk on the history of Chinese higher education.
She also plans to organize a book talk at Persnickety Books in Burlington, upon the release of her first book, “Student Activism in Bloom: China and the Communist World in the Late 1950s,” to be published by Cambridge University Press, continuing her efforts to connect her scholarship with the broader public.
Established in 1966, the National Committee on United States-China Relations is a registered nonprofit educational organization that “encourages understanding of China and the United States between citizens of both countries.”
As a Chinese national who has pursued a liberal arts college education in the U.S., Wu brings a cross-cultural perspective shaped by both Chinese and American educational systems. Within her PIP cohort, her focus on teaching and pedagogy, in addition to her scholarship, is seen as an asset.
At Elon, Wu uses role-playing games in her Chinese history courses to engage students in historical decision-making. Her scholarly work explores student activism in the Mao era and Chinese higher education during the Cold War, subjects that remain underrepresented in English-language scholarship.
“With my PIP training, I hope to expand my horizon beyond campus and academia, to engage more with the American public locally and nationally,” Wu said. “My research on student activism and higher education, paired with innovative pedagogy, allows me to foster deeper understandings of U.S. – China relations through the lens of education.
“Trained as a historian who conducts oral history interviews, I am committed to asking meaningful questions, building dialogue and connecting across communities.”