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This proposed summer program for high school students introduces students to the interdisciplinary field of space studies. Space studies at DKU integrates astronomy, cosmology, philosophy, art, and literature. It examines the complexities of outer space exploration and its interaction with broader realms of human activity. In the program, students explore the nature of the observable universe, and examine the cultural and scientific impacts of space exploration. Space studies is a multidisciplinary field built for curious minds who want to connect science with real-world discovery.
Weather permitting, students will also learn astronomical observing at the DKU observatory.
His research is in mathematical physics, at the intersection of geometry and astrophysics. In particular, he is interested in general relativity, its modifications and applications, such as mathematical properties of gravitational lensing. His teaching interests at Duke Kunshan are in the applied mathematics major, especially geometrical topics, and in developing interdisciplinary courses.
He has published in leading academic journals and has been a member of the American Mathematical Society, the Royal Astronomical Society (U.K.), and the German Physical Society.
Werner has an M.A., an M.Nat.Sci. and a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge. Before joining Duke Kunshan, he taught in Duke University’s Department of Mathematics before moving to Japan in 2011 to serve first as a researcher at the University of Tokyo’s Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe and then as a Hakubi assistant professor at Kyoto University.
His research focuses on the study of Zen Buddhist texts. His teaching interests at Duke Kunshan include ethics and leadership, global China studies, religion and literature.
Van Overmeire has a B.A. (cum laude) and M.A. (summa cum laude) in Germanic languages and literatures from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium; an M.A. in American studies (magna cum laude) from the University of Antwerp, Belgium; an M.A. in comparative literature (magna cum laude) from the State University of New York, Stony Brook; and a Ph.D. in literature from the University of California, San Diego. In 2016-17, he was a visiting assistant professor of religion at St. Olaf College. He is also a postdoctoral fellow of the Research Foundation Flanders at Ghent University, Belgium.
His research focuses on the intersection of religion and ecology in China. He has published six books including “China’s Green Religion: Daoism and the Quest for a Sustainable Future” (Columbia, 2017). He is noted worldwide as an expert in Daoism, China’s indigenous religion. His teaching interests at Duke Kunshan include ethics and leadership, global China studies, environmental science, U.S. studies, religious studies and philosophy.
Miller has a B.A. (honors) in Chinese studies from Durham University, a B.A. (honors) and M.A. in theological and religious studies from Cambridge University, and a Ph.D. in religious and theological studies from Boston University. Before joining Duke Kunshan, he was director of the School of Religion at Queen’s University, Canada.
Yitzhak Lewis is Assistant Professor of Humanities at Duke Kunshan University. His research interests include comparative literature in Hebrew, Spanish, and Yiddish, literary and cultural theory, transnational writing, and world literature. He is author of A Permanent Beginning: Nachman of Braslav and Jewish Literary Modernity (2020) and Games of Inheritance: Kabbalah, Tradition, and Authorship, in the Writing of Jorge Luis Borges (2025). He has edited a volume on “Yiddish and the Transnational in Latin America” for In Geveb: A Journal of Yiddish Studies (2021) and is currently co-editing a collection titled One Hundred Years of Yiddish Literature in China about the reception history of Jewish literature in China from World War I until today. His work has been published in Variaciones Borges, In Geveb: A Journal of Yiddish Studies, Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art, and Journal of Latin American Jewish Studies.
Lewis has a B.A. in comparative literature, psychology and creative writing from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a Ph.D. in Hebrew and comparative literature from Columbia University. Before joining Duke Kunshan, he taught at Columbia University.
Zairong XIANG’s research, teaching, and curatorial practices engage with cosmology and cosmopolitanism in their culturally diverse, historically specific, and conceptually promiscuous manifestations in English, Spanish, French, Chinese, and Nahuatl. Xiang has a cotutelle Ph.D. in comparative literature in 2013 from University of Tübingen and University of Perpignan with the European Union-funded Erasmus Mundus joint doctorate.
He teaches across the curriculum at the division of Arts and Humanities at Duke Kunshan University. Author of Queer Ancient Way: A Decolonial Exploration (punctum books), he is the editor of exhibition catalogues, journal special issues, and a film archive. He is currently completing his second book on “transdualism.” Through the concept of “shanzhai/counterfeit,” he continues multifaceted research into the artistic and intellectual exchanges in the Global South, especially between Latin America and China since the nineteenth century. Once a research fellow at the ICI-Berlin Institute for Cultural Inquiry and a postdoctoral fellow of the DFG Research Training Group minor cosmopolitanisms at Potsdam University, he was twice the recipients of the EU Erasmus Mundus scholarship. As a curator, he has co-curated the 2021 Guangzhou Image Triennial (2021), Ceremony (Burial of an Undead World) at Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Berlin, 2022), and the 14th Shanghai Biennial Cosmos Cinema (2023-2024). He has curated at Para-Site Hong Kong an exhibition titled How to be Happy Together? (2024 – 2025); and is co-curating (with Denise Ryner) a research and exhibition project on Afro-Asia at ICA Philadephia (2026).
For Chinese Students:
For International Students:
* Program fee included: Tuition, visit fee, accommodation, partial catering costs, study materials, insurance, etc.
* Exclude: Travel to and from Kunshan, personal expenses and expenses not mentioned, etc.
For Chinese Students:
For International Students:
– Current high school students (grades 9-12) with excellent overall qualities and good listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills in English.
– Open to all arts and science students and admission is based on merit according to batch.
Applicants must complete the information requested within the link in its entirety which includes:
The high school transcript must affix an official seal or the academic affairs department seal. Chinese students are recommended to use the transcript template provided by the program team. Transcripts should include end-of-semester grades for each semester since high school (full marks for individual subjects must be indicated). Please also provide overall rankings or rankings by arts/science and indicate the total number of students If there is a grade ranking. You can find the transcript template here:
Please introduce yourself in English with no more than 200 words (e.g. personal background, reasons for choosing the program, academic interests, leadership experience, extracurricular activities…).
Notes: While these materials are not required, it is recommended that you merge them into a PDF file before uploading.
Email: dku-gsi@dukekunshan.edu.cn
