Faculty Profile: Dr. Liping Bu
Dr. Liping Bu, professor of history, left Beijing University in 1989 after being encouraged by her American professors to study in the United States. After attending Smith College in Massachusetts, Dr. Bu received her Ph.D. in history and policy from Carnegie Mellon University.
Born and educated in China, Dr. Bu has a strong interest in historical perspectives on international education, cultural diplomacy, missionaries and gender roles, all of which have been subjects for her publications and professional conference papers. She teaches American foreign relations as well as American and modern Chinese and Japanese history. She has a broad interest in historical studies on international cultural relations, modernization and nation-building, and state and society. Her articles have appeared in Journal of American Studies, Peace & Change, Comparative Education Review and numerous other academic journals.
Bu is the author of Making the World Like Us: Education, Cultural Expansion, and the American Century (Praeger, 2003) and co-editor of The Cultural Turn: Essays in the History of U.S. Foreign Relations (Imprint, 2001). She is currently working on Public Health and Nation-Building in Early 20th Century China.
Dr. Bu has received several fellowships, including a National Endowment for the Humanities summer fellowship in 1999. In 2002, she earned Alma’s Posey Award for Faculty Excellence in Teaching and Scholarship.
In 2002 and again in 2004, Dr. Bu, led a class of Alma College students to China as part of a Spring Term course titled “China: Past, Present, and Future.” The course was designed “to help students understand China through both classroom learning and field trips.”
