On April 10, 2024, to further improve the quality of project proposals of the National Social Sciences Fund and other social sciences, the School of Foreign Languages invited Professor Zhang Bisheng, the doctoral supervisor in Guizhou Normal University, to deliver a lecture on the topic of Researches in Humanities and Social Sciences from the Interdisciplinary Perspective. The lecture was hosted by Vice Dean Du Jingping. Professor Zhang gave a brilliant lecture on various aspects such as the basic elements of topic selection, the methods of categorizing and exploring series topics and the six questions concerning topic selection. The lecture attracted students and teachers from SFL of JUFE and teachers from College of Modern Economics and Management JUFE, who actively participated in the lecture and created a lively atmosphere.

At the beginning of the lecture, Professor Zhang Bisheng introduced the methods and techniques for applying interdisciplinary humanities and social sciences projects from three aspects: the basic elements of topic selection, substantiation of the topic, and project design including the topic, question, theme and title. He highlighted, with reference to relevant academic literature, that applicants must recognize that the interdisciplinary field has broken the limitations of single discipline and must learn to view their own research field and methods from new perspectives. He also introduced several research directions, such as studies originating from the internal and external history of science and technology translation during the Ming and Qing dynasties, providing new perspectives and directions for teachers and students to conduct interdisciplinary researches.

Later, Professor Zhang emphasized the importance of staying true to one's initial aspirations, bearing the mission, identifying gaps, and making practice in academic research. He shared his own experiences to deeply discuss the main problems and solutions in selecting topics for humanities and social sciences projects and in writing different sections of the proposals. He suggested that in order to substantiate a topic, one should answer six questions: What do you want to do, where do you start, how do you plan to do it, what can you achieve, what is the use, and why should we believe you can do it? His lecture was rich in content and vivid in language and combined theories with classic case studies, making it both comprehensive and accessible. Thus, both teachers and students have benefited a lot from the lecture.

During the discussion, Professor Zhang patiently and thoroughly answered questions raised by teachers and students, which created a strong academic atmosphere and achieved good results. Finally, Vice Dean Du Jingping summarized the lecture and thanked Professor Zhang for his wonderful lecture. He encouraged the teachers and students to integrate the content of the lecture with their own research fields and make deep reflection, so as to effectively improve the quality of proposals and academic research capabilities.

    By Tan Jinglu & Du Jingping