Training Program on “Technological Innovation and Cultural Integration in the Indian Ocean World”

East China Normal University and Harvard-Yenching Institute
Co-sponsored by NYU Shanghai

June 1-7, 2026

This intensive training program is designed to provide doctoral candidates and early-career faculty with a rigorous, interdisciplinary understanding of the Indian Ocean world as a historically dynamic and contemporarily relevant maritime arena. Centering on technological innovation and cultural integration, the program examines how maritime technologies and cross-cultural interactions have shaped economic systems, political formations, and social worlds across the oceanic rim.

The program foregrounds a wide spectrum of technological developments, from premodern shipbuilding techniques, navigational knowledge, and maritime infrastructures to contemporary port facilities, logistics networks, and ocean-based connectivity. These technological trajectories are examined alongside patterns of cultural exchange, mobility, and encounter, tracing how ideas, practices, religious traditions, and communities circulated across the Indian Ocean in both premodern and modern contexts.

Adopting a longue durée perspective, the training program conceptualizes the Indian Ocean as a historically interconnected maritime space that links multiple seas, littoral zones, and coastal societies. Participants will engage with historical, archaeological, anthropological, and economic approaches, enabling a comparative analysis of patterns of continuity, rupture, and transformation across different temporal scales. Particular attention is given to how maritime perspectives complicate and challenge land-based and nation-state frameworks, offering alternative analytical lenses for understanding regional integration, mobility, and technological change in oceanic contexts.

Led by leading scholars in Indian Ocean studies, this program combines lectures, seminars, and collaborative discussions to equip participants with conceptual tools and methodological frameworks for studying oceanic histories. By emphasizing the maritime world as an analytical lens, it demonstrates how the Indian Ocean provides a distinctive vantage point for rethinking technological innovation, transregional connections, and the making of interconnected societies across Asia and beyond.

Program chairs

Zhu Ming, Department of History, East China Normal University
Sangeeta Banerji, Center for Global Asia, NYU Shanghai

Venue

Minhang Campus, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China
NYU Shanghai, Pudong, Shanghai, China

Working language

English

Eligible applicants

• Eligible candidates should either be currently pursuing a Ph.D. at an Asia-based institution or Asia-based young scholars who received their Ph.D. degree after 2020.

• To make the HYI’s Asia-based training program available to as many young scholars as possible, former HYI training program participants are not eligible to apply.

• A very small number of Ph.D. students and junior faculty members affiliated with institutions outside Asia may be recruited to participate; however, they will not be eligible to apply for the Harvard-Yenching Institute fellowship opportunity.

Application process

Prospective applicants should submit their applications to indian.ocean.cga@gmail.com no later than February 15, 2026. Please send your inquires to the same email address with any questions in the process of application. Your application packet should comprise the following:

1. The completed application form 
2. One page of statement of research interest
3. A writing sample (dissertation chapter is fine)
4. One recommendation letter from your academic advisor (for Ph.D. candidates) [the letter can be sent directly to the above email, separate from the application package]

Selection Procedure: A selection committee will review all submissions. The final selection is scheduled to be announced by March 1, 2026. Only selected applicants will be informed by email. There is no application or participation fees. International participants will need to manage their own visa application and round-trip airfare. East China Normal University will supply any required documents to support visa applications. Additionally, the organizers will bear the expenses related to accommodation, lunch and dinner for all participants during the duration of the program.

Opportunities after completion of the 2026 program

Harvard-Yenching Institute visiting fellowship opportunities: upon the conclusion of the program, the Harvard-Yenching Institute will offer opportunities for a very small number of selected trainees to be awarded a Harvard-Yenching Institute fellowship for a one-year research stay at Harvard University during the 2027-2028 academic year.

研修项目

印度洋世界的技术革新与文化交融

主办单位：华东师范大学, 哈佛燕京学社

协办单位：上海纽约大学

活动时间：2026年6月1日-7日

本项目旨在为博士生及青年学者提供一套严谨的、跨学科的知识体系，助力其理解印度洋世界这一在历史进程中充满活力、且在当代仍具重要意义的海洋活动场域。项目以技术革新与文化交融为核心，聚焦航海技术与跨文化互动如何塑造环印度洋地区的经济体系、政治格局与社会形态。

本项目覆盖的技术发展范畴极为广泛，既包含前现代时期的造船工艺、航海知识与海洋基础设施，也涉及当代的港口设施、物流网络及海洋联通体系。在梳理这些技术发展脉络的同时，本项目将同时考察与之相伴的文化交流、人口流动及文明碰撞模式，追溯思想观念、行为习俗、宗教传统与社群组织在前现代与现代两个历史阶段的印度洋地区传播路径。

本项目采用长时段研究视角，将印度洋界定为一个具有历史关联性的海洋空间，它串联起多个海域、滨海地带与沿岸社会。参与者将运用历史学、考古学、人类学与经济学的多元研究方法，对不同时间尺度下的历史延续、断裂与转型模式展开比较分析。本项目特别关注海洋视角如何补充以陆地为中心、以民族国家为单位的研究框架，从而为理解海洋语境下的区域整合、人口流动与技术变革提供全新的分析维度。

本项目由印度洋史研究领域的顶尖学者领衔授课，通过专题讲座、学术研讨与协作式讨论相结合的形式，为参与者配备研究海洋历史所需的概念工具与方法论框架。本项目以海洋世界为主要分析切入点，阐释印度洋如何为重新审视技术革新、跨区域联结，以及亚洲乃至全球互联互通提供独特的研究视角。

项目负责人

朱明，华东师范大学历史学系

Sangeeta Banerji，上海纽约大学环球亚洲研究中心

举办地点

中国上海 华东师范大学闵行校区

中国上海 上海纽约大学

工作语言

英语

申请资格

1. 申请者须为亚洲地区高校在读博士生，或2020年之后在亚洲地区获得博士学位的青年学者。
2. 为使哈佛燕京学社面向亚洲的研修项目惠及更多青年学者，曾参与该学社过往研修项目者不具备再次申请参加研修项目的资格。
3. 项目将少量招收亚洲以外地区高校的博士生及青年教师，此类申请者不享有申请哈佛燕京学社奖学金的资格。

申请流程

意向申请者须于2026 年 2 月 15 日前，将申请材料发送至邮箱：indian.ocean.cga@gmail.com。申请过程中如有疑问，可通过同一邮箱咨询。申请材料须包含以下内容：

1. 填写完整的申请表
2. 一页纸篇幅的研究兴趣陈述
3. 学术写作样本（博士论文章节亦可）
4. 一封学术推荐信（仅针对博士生申请者）（推荐信需单独发送至上述邮箱，无需随申请材料打包提交）

遴选流程

遴选委员会将对所有申请材料进行审核，最终录取结果定于2026年3月1日公布，录取通知将通过邮件形式仅发送至获选申请者。本项目不收取任何申请费及参与费。国际申请者需自行办理签证手续并承担往返机票费用，华东师范大学将提供签证申请所需的相关证明文件。此外，会议组织方将为所有参会者提供项目期间的住宿与午晚餐。

2026年项目结业后相关机会

哈佛燕京学社访学机会：项目结束后，研修班的学员有机会申请哈佛燕京学社访学机会。哈佛燕京学社将选拔极少数优秀学员赴哈佛大学访学一年（2027-2028学年）。