"A wonderful new facility" - Dr Micah Muscolino on the Dickson Poon Building

Last month saw the formal opening by HRH The Duke of Cambridge of the Dickson Poon Building, the new home of the University of Oxford China Centre. Dr Micah Muscolino, Fellow in Modern Asian History, hails this important phase in the continuing development of Oxford as a centre for research on China:

"Merton College has long played a major part in Oxford’s tradition of China studies, with the election of the distinguished historian of Chinese art, Professor Dame Jessica Rawson, as the College’s first female Warden and the establishment of a Fellowship in Modern Asian History in her name, which I now hold. Along with my senior colleague Patricia Thornton (Tutor in the Politics of China, Associate Professor of Chinese Politics), I am committed to further promoting analysis and understanding of China in all its dimensions at Merton.

"In recent years, research on China produced at Oxford has gained growing recognition and influence in academic, policymaking, and business circles worldwide. Thanks to the opening of the Dickson Poon University of Oxford China Centre Building in September 2014, this upward trajectory promises to continue well into the future. Oxford has not only cemented its position as the leading centre for the study of China in Europe, but has emerged as one the most vibrant and exciting places in the world to do research on China.

"The Dickson Poon Building will facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration, discussion, and debate by gathering Oxford’s extraordinary group of academics engaged in advanced research and training in all fields of Chinese studies under one roof. The wonderful new facility also provides an ideal venue for hosting and engaging in intellectual dialogue with visitors from the international scholarly community, especially those hailing from China and other parts of East Asia."