JHU SAIS Names New American Co-Director of Hopkins-Nanjing Center

Washington, D.C. – March 17, 2011 – The Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) has named Jason Patent as the new American co-director of the Hopkins-Nanjing Center for Chinese and American Studies, effective May 1.

Established in 1986, the center, located in Nanjing, China, is a post-graduate educational joint venture between The Johns Hopkins University and Nanjing University, providing approximately 200 students from the United States and other countries and China the unique opportunity to live and study together. American and international students take the majority of their classes in Mandarin, while Chinese students study mostly in English. In addition, the center has the only open stacks, uncensored library in China, containing more than 100,000 English and Chinese volumes. SAIS administers the center’s activities on behalf of Johns Hopkins.

As the Nanjing-based American co-director, Patent will be responsible for the management of the center’s affairs with the Chinese co-director, as well as the administration of the recently established master’s program—the first Sino-U.S. M.A. degree accredited in both countries—and the certificate program.

Prior to joining the Hopkins-Nanjing Center, Patent most recently served since late 2009 as vice president of communications and marketing for Orchestrall, Inc., a Philadelphia-based China market entry company.

Patent’s more than 20 years of China-related experience began after college when he first taught English in the far Northeast industrial city of Qiqihar. Since that time, his work has spanned the education, nonprofit and business sectors. He later lived in Guangzhou, Chengdu and Beijing—where in 2004, he became the inaugural director of Stanford University’s Overseas Studies Program based at Peking University. While with the Stanford program, he also taught courses on language and culture and conducted scholarly research. In 2007, Patent transitioned to the private sector, where he worked as a management consultant for Gap International near Philadelphia, leading a team of linguists charged with innovating methods of using language to improve business performance.

Patent received his B.A. in East Asian studies from Harvard University in 1990, an M.A. in East Asian studies from Stanford University in 1994 and a Ph.D. in linguistics from the University of California, Berkeley in 2003.

SAIS is one of the country’s leading graduate schools devoted to the study of international relations. Located along Embassy Row in Washington, D.C.’s Dupont Circle area, the school enrolls more than 600 full-time graduate students and mid-career professionals and has trained more than 15,000 alumni in all aspects of international affairs. In addition to Washington and Nanjing, SAIS also has a campus in Bologna, Italy.