– As a teacher of World history lessons and advisor of graduates dissertation

Prof. Jerry H. Bentley, professor of University of Hawai`i and the chief editor of Journal of World History, gives World History lessons to candidates for masters and doctoral degrees majoring global history in Capital Normal University on Oct. 10-14, 2011. He also attends the seminar held for graduates demonstrating their dissertations on Oct. 17, 2011.

The world history lessons consist of two parts, lesson hours and office hours. Prof. Bentley and the students discuss about five articles which are selected by him during lessons hours, and the students propose other questions concerning historical research to Prof. Bentley in office hours. The five articles recommended by Prof. Bentley is all about global history research in China, and the discussion of these five articles makes the students learn more about the development of Global history in china, the euro-centrism and nationalism embedded in Chinese historian??s works. During the office hour, Prof. Bentley answered questions raised by the students patiently, solving the puzzles and confusions of them. All of the students are impressed by his broad and profound knowledge, his historical way of thinking and his humor.

On oct.17, Prof. Bentley attends the seminar held for graduates demonstrating their dissertations, with History Department staff Prof. Xia Jiguo, Prof. Liu Wenming Prof. Liang Zhanjun, Prof. Shi cheng and?Associate Researcher Chen Zhijian being present. There are 10 graduates demonstrating dissertations, each one gets advices and suggestions from the teachers and Prof. Bentley himself. Prof. Bentley recommends relevant books and authors as references to the graduates, gives suggestions on the thesis structures, and writes his advices on their dissertation reports, which broaden the vision of the students and benefit them a lot.

At the end, Prof. Bentley summarizes that the graduates shows their creative way of doing world history research. He has two pieces of advices: one is that analytic focus is one of the most important things in global history research. Usually, most of the teacher advises to narrow down, but his preference is to find a focus. The other is that connecting point is very important in world history. The students of world history should learn to establish a clear relationship between basic research and larger ideas like cross-culture and globe.

Introduction of Prof. Jerry H. Bentley:

Jerry H. Bentley is professor of history and editor of the Journal of World History. He has written extensively on the cultural history of early modern Europe and on cross-cultural interactions and exchanges in world history. His research on the religious, moral, and political writings of the Renaissance led to the publication of Humanists and Holy Writ: New Testament Scholarship in the Renaissance (1983) and Politics and Culture in Renaissance Naples (1987). His current research concentrates on global history and particularly on processes of cross-cultural interaction. His book Old World Encounters: Cross-Cultural Contact and Exchange in Pre-Modern Times (1993) studies processes of cultural exchange and religious conversion before modern times. He has also written on the periodization of world history and on historiographical issues relating to world history.
Dr. Bentley teaches courses in world history, early modern history, and the expansion of Europe.

Representative publications:

 (with Herbert F. Ziegler) Traditions and Encounters: A Global Perspective on the Past (Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2000; second edition, 2003; third edition, 2006; fourth edition, 2008)

 Old World Encounters: Cross-Cultural Contacts and Exchanges in Pre-Modern Times (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993)

 Politics and Culture in Renaissance Naples (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987)

 Humanists and Holy Writ: New Testament Scholarship in the Renaissance (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983)

Edited Works

 Journal of World History (1990- )

 The Oxford History Handbook of World History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, forthcoming in 2011)

 (with Charles H. Parker) From the Middle Ages to Modernity: Individual and Community in the Early Modern World (Lanham,Md.: Rowman and Littlefield, 2007)

 (with Renate Bridenthal and K?ren E. Wigen), Seascapes: Maritime Histories, Littoral Cultures, and Transoceanic Exchanges (Honolulu:UniversityofHawai`iPress, 2007)

 (with Renate Bridenthal and Anand A. Yang) Interactions: Transregional Perspectives on World History (Honolulu:UniversityofHawai`iPress, 2005)

Articles

Early Modern Europe and the Early Modern World, in Charles H. Parker and Jerry H. Bentley, eds, Between the Middle Ages and Modernity: Individual and Community in the Early Modern World (Lanham,Md.: Rowman and Littlefield, 2007), pp. 13-31

 Myths, Wagers, and Some Moral Implications of World History, Journal of World History 16 (2005): 51-82

 World History and Grand Narrative, in Benedikt Stuchtey and Eckhardt Fuchs, eds., Writing World History, 1800-2000 (Oxford:OxfordUniversityPress, 2003), pp. 47-65

 The New World History, in Lloyd Kramer and Sarah Maza, eds., A Companion to Western Historical Thought (Oxford: Blackwell, 2002), pp. 393-416

 Sea and Ocean Basins as Frameworks of Historical Analysis, The Geographical Review 89 (1999): 215-24

Hemispheric Integration, 500-1500 C.E., Journal of World History 9 (1998): 237-54

Cross-Cultural Interaction and Periodization in World History, American Historical Review 101 (1996): 749-70