Our “New Research” series provides the public with a venue to read the most recently published RAC research reports. They have been prepared by RAC travel stipends recipients who come to our reading room to study the archival materials that we preserve and make available to researchers from around the world. These reports showcase the wide range of collections that they have used, spanning different time periods and disciplines. The title of this edition also highlights the global nature of our archives. This set of reports cites records from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Markle Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and the China Medical Board.
“Formalizing Local Expertise: The Rockefeller Foundation and the Making of Agricultural Science in Republican China” by Mengliu Cheng
Mengliu Cheng’s report, “Formalizing Local Expertise: The Rockefeller Foundation and the Making of Agricultural Science in Republican China,” traces the transformation of farming into a “science” in early twentieth-century China. Examining programs at four institutions in Nanking and Canton, she argues that instead of simply importing agricultural science from the West, scientists built the discipline by engaging with local expertise. As a key funder of both agricultural research and rural reconstruction projects in China, the Rockefeller Foundation played a major role on this process. Mengliu Cheng found the Foundation’s archives to be extremely helpful in documenting how these institutions worked with local farmers. She notes that farmers, migrants, and laborers are too often underrepresented in histories of agricultural science. In a turbulent era, in which the Japanese invasion forced Chinese academic institutions to quickly relocate, grass-root ties were essential in sustaining agricultural research.
Mengliu Cheng is a doctoral candidate in the Department of History at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research interests include environmental issues and popular science in early twentieth-century China. She was a 2023 RAC research stipend recipient.
“Roads to Democracy: Miscegenation, US Liberalism, and Race Relations in Brazil” by Gustavo Mesquita
Gustavo Mesquita came to RAC to study records in the Ford Foundation archives on race relations in Brazil. His report, “Roads to Democracy: Miscegenation, US Liberalism, and Race Relations in Brazil,” highlights this foundation’s substantial impact on reshaping questions of race in Brazilian academic disciplines, government policy, and in grassroots organizations. Dr. Mesquita documents the dozens of grants that Ford allocated to Brazil on these matters, starting in the 1980s. He argues that this level of grantmaking helped establish a new paradigm for race relations there, moving away from a “brasilidade”-based fusion model to one of affirming racial identity and supporting an activist approach to gaining equality. In concluding his report, he notes that these findings suggest new avenues of research to explore the dynamics of this transformation of race relations in Brazil, as well as the motivation and goals of US philanthropies engaged with the process.
Gustavo Mesquita is an assistant professor of political science and a member of the Cold War Studies Research Group at the University of Brasília. His research interests focus on the theory of democracy, human rights, race relations and Brazil-United States relations from a historical perspective. He was a 2020 RAC research stipend recipient.
“A Tale of Two (Journalism) Funders: The Markle Foundation, the Knight Foundation, and Historical Approaches to Journalism Philanthropy, 1969-1991” by Louisa Lincoln
Louisa Lincoln has noted that there is a gap in scholarly research on a particular area of philanthropy history: the impact of foundations on journalism. Starting in the mid-twentieth century, a number of foundations have turned their grantmaking attention to supporting news and information programs. Her research report, “A Tale of Two (Journalism) Funders: The Markle Foundation, the Knight Foundation, and Historical Approaches to Journalism Philanthropy, 1969-1991,” reflects her time spent at RAC studying these activities. She looked at the archival records of two foundations in particular as case studies of philanthropic support for journalism and noted that when the Markle Foundation and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation initiated their programs, they both focused on journalism education and training. However, they soon diverged in the fields that they supported, with Markle providing funds to broader areas of media while Knight viewed support for newspaper journalism as the area in most critical need of funding. She concludes her report with an observation that her foray into the records of these two journalism funders represents merely an early exploration of this aspect of the history of philanthropy and asserts that the field needs further study.
Louisa Lincoln is a doctoral candidate at the Annenberg School of Communications of the University of Pennsylvania. Her research interests look at the intersection of media policy and journalism funding. She was a 2023 RAC research stipend recipient.
“The Impact of Japanese Occupation on the Peking Union Medical College” by Howard Chiang
In his report, “The Impact of Japanese Occupation on the Peking Union Medical College,” Howard Chiang draws attention to an important period in Peking Union Medical College (PUMC) history. During World War II, the Japanese invasion of China had a major impact on Chinese academic institutions. Researchers studying the work of PUMC have written extensively about its efforts to relocate many of its academic departments to unoccupied southwest China. However, as Dr. Chiang points out, little has been written about what happened to the campus itself in Beijing. While few records still exist due to the turmoil of the war, he was able to find some important documentation in the archives of the China Medical Board (CMB) at RAC. The CMB, which had its origins in the Rockefeller Foundation’s early efforts to bring Western health programs to the Far East, was the primary sponsor and funder of the PUMC. Of particular significance were reports reaching CMB immediately after the Japanese surrender. Other than the library and patient records, much of PUMC’s infrastructure was either stripped of equipment (and metals) or destroyed. Howard Chiang notes that although CMB recommitted itself to rebuild PUMC, its efforts were short-lived. PUMC was nationalized soon after the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, which brought an end to CMB’s philanthropy in China, and the organization redirected its work to other parts of East and Southeast Asia. Only in the 1980s were ties re-established with China, enabling CMB to embark on new collaborations in that country, including with PUMC.
Howard Chiang is a professor in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His recent work centers on the historical and conceptual foundations of the human sciences, especially psychoanalysis, cultural psychiatry, racial science, and transgender studies. Prof. Chiang was a 2020 RAC research stipend recipient.
About the RAC Research Stipend Program
The Rockefeller Archive Center offers a competitive research stipend program that provides individuals up to $5,000 for reimbursement of travel and accommodation expenses. Learn more on our Research Stipend page.
