The Arab Studies Center at Beijing Language and Culture University, a cultivation base for country and regional studies under the Ministry of Education, was established in November 2011. It was among the first group of substantive research institutions selected for the Ministry of Education’s country and regional studies program and serves as the lead unit for the youth development sector under the Ministry’s "China-Arab Universities 10+10 Cooperation Plan".
After more than a decade of development, the center has made outstanding contributions in serving the national diplomatic strategy and conducting research on the national and social conditions of Arab countries. It has become a first-class, internationally influential Arab research institution and a professional think tank within higher education institutions.
Professor Luo Lin, the director of the center, is a recipient of the "National Teaching Master Award (2022)," "National Distinguished Professorship (2021)," and "Outstanding Communist Party Member of Beijing." The team includes one talent recognized under the "Four Batches" program and two recipients of the "Special Government Allowance" from the State Council. The proportion of young faculty members who have pursued overseas work or further studies exceeds 100%.
The center currently hosts a postdoctoral program in Foreign Languages and Literature, and offers a first-level interdisciplinary doctoral program in "Area Studies" as well as a second-level doctoral program in "Arabic Language and Literature." It has established a comprehensive talent cultivation system spanning undergraduate, master's, and doctoral levels.
Based on foreign language disciplines and focusing on country and regional studies, the Center actively promotes the transformation and development of foreign language disciplines, achieving continuous breakthroughs in theoretical innovation. In recent years, Center researchers have undertaken over 20 national and provincial-level projects, including one major project of the National Social Science Fund, two key and general projects of the National Social Science Fund, one project of the Ministry of Education's Philosophy and Social Sciences Research, two projects of the Beijing Social Science Fund, and 14 projects of the Ministry of Education's Country and Regional Studies. Center researchers have published over 40 papers in domestic and international academic journals. The Center’s representative achievement, the Annual Report on Arab Development, has been published for eight consecutive years, systematically and comprehensively documenting major annual events and trends across various fields in the Arab world, offering high academic reference value.
The center focuses on the overall situation of the Party and the country's external work, addresses major practical issues, implements academic service to the nation through key projects, and effectively enhances the ability and level of interpreting politics through academic research. The internal reference reports authored by Luo Lin have repeatedly received positive instructions from Party and state leaders. In recent years, more than 20 policy advisory reports written by the team members have been adopted by central government departments, contributing wisdom to major national strategies and local social development.
In addition to providing quality services, the center has been actively enhancing its overall research capabilities since 2012. To this end, it has signed cooperation agreements with several prestigious universities, including New York University, Indiana University, and the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey in the United States; Cairo University, Suez Canal University, and Pharos University in Egypt; Kuwait University; as well as the University of Jordan, the University of Sharjah, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, and University College Dublin. Under these agreements, the center has sent a number of key faculty members and graduate students (both master's and doctoral candidates) for further study and academic exchange.
Simultaneously, the center has established connections with international think tanks such as the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre, the Sharjah Institute for Heritage, and the King Salman Global Academy for Arabic Language. Multiple mutual visits have been conducted, laying a solid foundation for building a research team with a global perspective focused on Arab studies.
Website Link: https://ayan1.blcu.edu.cn/
