On the afternoon of 2 April 2025, the inaugural Fangtang Innovation Doctoral Dissertation Award ceremony was held at Tsinghua University’s Bing Suo Conference Room. Guo Yong, Deputy Secretary of the CPC Tsinghua University Committee, attended and presented the awards. Yang Jinfang, donor to the Fangtang Research Fund, joined remotely to deliver a video address. Yang Yongheng, Director of Tsinghua University’s Division of Humanities Development, announced the award-winning dissertations. The ceremony was chaired by Liu Han, Deputy Director of the Division of Humanities Development and Vice Dean of Fangtang Institute.
Original questions in a changing era
Guo Yong said that establishing and selecting the award was an innovative step in Tsinghua’s development of the humanities and foundational social sciences. Against profound changes facing the humanities worldwide, he expressed confidence in their future and the hope that Tsinghua’s humanities would continue to bring fresh vitality to national modernization and renewal. He also thanked Yang Jinfang for supporting the development of young scholars in the humanities and social sciences.
Yang Jinfang said that the award was established to inspire young scholars to pursue academic frontiers and move beyond the boundaries of existing knowledge. He encouraged cross-disciplinary learning and exchange, as well as the courage to address foundational, essential, and forward-looking questions. In an age when AI has exceptional capacity to integrate knowledge, he said, young scholars need to identify strong questions and perspectives, and use AI to create theories that AI alone cannot create.
Guo Yong with Chen Yunqing, Liu Yutong, Shi Congbin, Wang Peijie, and Zheng Yihua after the award presentation.
Early-career scholars share their research
The five award recipients spoke about the research questions and innovations of their doctoral dissertations.
Professor Zhao Dongmei of Peking University’s Department of History and Feng Jinhong, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of SDX Joint Publishing Company, attended as reviewer representatives. They congratulated the recipients and shared their perspectives on academic innovation.
Huang Dekuan, Tsinghua University Distinguished Professor of Humanities and Director of the Center for Research and Preservation of Excavated Texts, and Meng Ke, Associate Professor with tenure in Tsinghua’s School of Public Policy and Management, spoke as representatives of the recipients’ supervisors. They encouraged young scholars to adapt to change while holding on to what matters, growing from solving problems and explaining ideas to developing original thought.
Meng Xiangli, Vice President of the Office of Scientific Research; Sun Fu, Director of the Graduate Education Office; He Xuebing, Deputy Director of the Division of Humanities Development; and colleagues from the Division of Humanities Development and Fangtang Institute also attended.
The Fangtang Innovation Doctoral Dissertation Award was established by Fangtang Institute at Tsinghua University. Founded in April 2024, the Institute draws on Tsinghua’s multidisciplinary strengths and distinctive humanities and social sciences tradition. It advances openness, diversity, and international engagement; fosters cross-disciplinary intellectual exchange; and seeks to cultivate innovative spirit and thinking as a globally influential source of original innovation and a platform for fundamental exchange between science and the humanities.
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