Said@Duke: William Kirby on How Chinese and American Universities Compete for Global Leadership

Distinguished Harvard professor William C. Kirby discussed his book, "Empires of Ideas: Creating the Modern University from Germany to America to China, this week at Duke. Duke President Emeritus Richard Brodhead has described Kirby's book as "must reading for everyone who cares about universities, a thought-provoking lesson in the strange mix of durability and vulnerability that defines this key modern institution."

Kirby is a professor at Harvard University and serves as chairman of the Harvard China Fund and faculty chair of the Harvard Center Shanghai. At Harvard, he has served as director of the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, chairman of the History Department and dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. His current projects include case studies of trend-setting Chinese businesses and a comparative study of higher education in China, Europe, and the United States. The talk was organized by Duke Global.

View more from the Said@Duke series.