On November 18, 2016, Prof. Zhao, a professor from the School of Public Affairs and Administration (SPAA) organized the second academic workshop for international master’s in Public Administration students under her academic supervision in room 444 of Zonghe Building. The workshop aimed at helping the students write good scholarly articles.

The workshop which was in three sessions was attended by four students. These were Borojo Petros, Khursnad Rakhmatov, Bulaukin Nivita, Borba Inagamod and Jan Qasim。

In the first session, Jan Qasim, a first year student, conducted a presentation on his article on “Belt and Road Initiative: Potential to Tame American Imperialism.” He explained that the paper is about the “New Silk Road Initiative” announced by the Chinese president in the mid of 2013 to construct land and maritime links in the Asia-Pacific to counter American hegemony in the region. He gave a pictorial view of the project, defined his key terms and the goals of the policy before drawing his conclusion.
    She explained that China was constructing the Silk Road Economic Belt. In the Asia-Pacific to counter the US re-balance, they are promoting the Maritime Silk Road, and to confront the US-sponsored New Silk Road through Afghanistan, they are pushing the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, which cuts across the Central Asia - South Asia link. He identified that, China is doing this in collaboration with Russia to offer resistance against a unipolar world.
    During the second (discussion) session, the class evaluated Jan’s work. Khursnad Rakhmatov inquired how the initiative would affect his country, Russia. Professor Zhao also asked Jan to focus on the American strategy, to find out how the Chinese strategies and initiatives would be carried out, and make comparative analysisof the policies of both countries before drawing conclusions. She also raised the need for Jan to support his arguments with authoritative sources.
    In the third session, Professor Zhao took the class through the steps in writing scholarly articles. She identified that any article should contain the following elements – abstract, research background, research, ideas, purpose, methodology, findings and conclusion.
    She explained that while abstract summarizes the whole paper the introduction introduces the paper. In writing the abstract, the writer is expected to give an overall view of the paper including information such asthe background, purpose and focus, methods, results, and should be specific about the main findings and not vague. The introduction part on the other hand, should provide an extended abstract. It should lead up to and explain what will be found in the main part.

The participants were unanimous that the workshop on writing scholarly article had been educative, informative and exciting. Professor Zhao thanked the participants for attending the training and requested them to revise everything they learned. The participants took group photos before closing the workshop.

The workshop was part of series of academic activities designed by Professor Zhao to develop the writing skills of the international master’s students under her supervision.