“Missed It”: Caricature of Russian trying to grab “Neutral China,” but John Hay has already gotten ahold of it. BY R. EDGREU; FROM THE JOHN HAY COLLECTION
Join the Brown University Library for a presentation of original research by Brown students exploring the global impact of John Hay’s China Policy — and Brown University’s role in this history — drawing on rare special collections materials from Brown and beyond.
Hybrid Event
Wednesday, December 10, 2025, from 2:30 to 5 p.m.
In person: Patrick Ma Digital Scholarship Lab at the Rockefeller Library. Free and open to the public. Light refreshments.
Online: https://brown.zoom.us/j/98923019954?jst=2
Program
Introduction
“Qing’s Embattled Navy” – Adam Reiffen (Military Fellow, Watson School)
Presenters
- Jason Mao ’28 – “John Hay Behind the Policy: Lincoln, Boxer, and the Remission”
- Brooke Cohen ’26 – “The Minister’s Wife and the Empress Dowager: A Friendship that Humanized China in U.S. Policy-making”
- Hank Zhou ’27 – “Personal Diplomacy and Structural Constraints: Wu Tingfang, John Hay, and the Limits of Sino-American Relations, 1900-1902”
Break
- Morgan Glazier’ 26 – Title TBD
- Renee Kuo ’27 – “The “Land of Opportunity”: From John Hay’s Open Door to Brown-in-China”
- Emma Brignall ’27 – “New Leaders of the Young Republic: American Education in the Making of Modern China”
Sponsored by Brown University Library, Brown 2026, China Initiative, and Cogut Collaborative Humanities.