During the current academic year, the prior collaboration between Nova Southeastern University（NSU）and Beijing Normal University（BNU）have been expanded to include greater opportunities for research, outreach, teaching, intercultural exchanges of faculty and students and other projects. NSU’s School of Humanities and Social Sciences（SHSS）announced the formalizing of the relationship between NSU and BNU. On January 16, 2013, NSU and BNU entered into a formal relationship through the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding at NSU’s Grande Oaks Country Club.

Participating from BNU were Xiaoyi Fang, Ph.D., Linyuan Deng, Ph.D., Jing Lan, Ed.M., and Jinato Zhang, Ph.D. Fang is the Yangtze River Professor and Director of the Institute of Developmental Psychology at BNU. He has been honored by China’s Ministry of Education in recognition of his academic and professional achievements. Deng is an assistant professor of the Faculty of Education at BNU and is a family therapist focusing on young couple relationships and parent-adolescent relationships. Lan is a family therapist and the manager and research assistant at the Marital and Family Research and Therapy Center at BNU. Zhang is an assistant professor of the State Key Laboratory of Neuroscience and Learning at BNU, and an Assistant to the Dean of School of Brain and Cognitive Science.

Honggang Yang, Ph.D., Dean of SHSS welcomed the Chinese scholars on January 10, 2013 with Tommie Boyd, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Family Therapy（DFT）, John Miller, Ph.D., associate professor DFT, and other DFT faculty. While here the Chinese scholars presented at the 4th Qualitative Report Conference and had the opportunity to interact with DFT faculty and students. Yang stated “We are looking forward to co-developing sustainable academic projects with BNU to further the family therapy advancement.”

The foundation for this collaboration began during the summer of 2011 when John Miller, Ph.D., in SHSS（http://shss.nova.edu/）led a group of SHSS students to Beijing, China as part of a course he was teaching, International Perspectives in Counseling and Therapy. Martha Marquez, Ph.D., another DFT faculty member also participated in this trip. In the summer of 2012, Miller again led a group to China as a part of his course. This time the group also participated in a collaborative symposium in Beijing between the SHSS graduate students and faculty and BNU, offering an opportunity for student-scholars to exchange ideas about the field of therapy from both a Western and Eastern cultural perspective. Yang delivered the welcome address for the opening of the plenary at the forum SHSS co-sponsored.

This collaboration will provide SHSS faculty and students greater opportunities to expand family therapy internationally.  Family therapy in China is an important and growing area of interest for both American and Chinese scholars.

About Nova Southeastern University：Situated on 300 beautiful acres in Davie, Florida, Nova Southeastern University is a dynamic fully accredited research institution dedicated to providing high-quality educational programs at all levels.  NSU is the eighth largest not-for-profit independent institution nationally with more than 28,000 students. NSU awards associate’s, bachelor’s, master’s, specialist, doctoral and first-professional degrees in a wide range of fields. Classified as a research university with “high research activity” by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, NSU is one of only 37 universities nationwide to also be awarded Carnegie’s Community Engagement Classification.