Bernard Bell, professor, Pennsylvania State University--University Park, PA
Lecturing: The Globalization of African American Vernacular Culture and Hip Hop; The African American Literature Tradition
Host: Beijing Foreign Studies University, Beijing, China
February-July 2004

Sharing Music and Culture in the East
In the fall of 2003, Bernard Bell, a professor teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in American and African American literature at Pennsylvania State University-University Park, received a Fulbright grant to Beijing. Bell had three goals in mind. The first was to promote the Mandarin translation of his book The Afro-American Novel and Its Tradition and its newly published English sequel The Contemporary African American Novel: Its Folk Roots and Modern Literary Branches.

The second was to promote the development of African American studies in Beijing and Sichuan Province. And lastly, Bell wanted to highlight the 100th anniversary of African American blues music.
As a lecturing scholar, Bell taught two postgraduate courses, "The African American Literary Tradition" and "The Political Economy and Globalization of African American Culture From the Blues to Hip Hop." Both these courses were new additions to Beijing Foreign Studies University (Beiwai). Bell's curriculum for the courses included mini-lectures, audio-visual aids and class discussions. Some of his students were so encouraged by the blues to hip hop course that they sought further readings and opportunities to hear more music after class.

Bell also involved himself with helping several students with their theses and dissertations, ranging in topics from Toni Morrison to Clarence Major to narratology and contemporary critical theory. Additionally, he tested and reported on the English proficiency of a postgraduate student who was applying to the Foreign Language Teaching Assistant Program.

Bell was as productive outside of the university as he was inside. He wrote two essays, both published bilingually, on African American blues music, participated in cultural festivals, held a book signing at Beijing National Library, participated in a Fulbright orientation film along with some of his students and gave six different lectures, including one at the Third International Conference on William Faulkner.

The Fulbright experience was extremely successful for Bell. "My semester at Beiwai was culturally enlightening and exciting as well as professionally beneficial and mutually memorable," he said. His experience was so beneficial that he was asked to return to China for two weeks as a Fulbright Senior Specialist to give lectures at Beiwai, Beida and the Southwest University of Science and Technology.

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