EHS Hosts Dr. Rory Truex, Scholar-in-Residence

Dr. Rory Truex visited campus Jan. 26-29 as part of the Scholar-in-Residence program. Dr. Truex is an assistant professor in Princeton's Department of Politics and Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. He teaches politics and public policy and spends his time researching the Chinese government, politics, and economic systems.
The Ben Geer Keys Scholar-in-Residence program was established in 1998 and brings talented scholars and artists to Episcopal to work with students.
Dr. Truex is an assistant professor in Princeton's Department of Politics and Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. He teaches politics and public policy and spends his time researching the Chinese government, politics, and economic systems. Dr. Truex earned his A.B. from Princeton, an M.A. in economics, and a Ph.D. in politics from Yale University. He is fluent in Mandarin Chinese, which he began studying during his freshman year of college. Currently, Dr. Truex is investigating China's National People's Congress and the politics implemented in their dictatorial systems. He is documenting this information into a working book manuscript which he calls “My Book Project.” Read more about his book project here. Dr. Truex’s research has been featured in the Wall Street Journal’s China Real Time Report, The New York Times (Chinese), and Phoenix Magazine (Chinese).

While at EHS, Dr. Rory Truex sat in on many classes, met with faculty members, and addressed the student body on the topics surrounding his area of expertise. Dr. Truex spent a class period with Mr. Baran’s Honors Global History 2 class where they discussed Stalinism and Soviet economic policy. During class, Dr. Truex gave a lecture on the theories of authoritarian political structures and how they apply both to the Soviet Union and especially, to modern China. Mr. Baran reported that Dr. Truex successfully “broke down the authoritarian structure of the Chinese Communist Party, but also noted that the CCP has successfully lifted 600,000,000 people out of poverty.” Mr. Baran also remarked that the students were particularly captivated by Dr. Truex’s lecture due to his engaging style of speech.

Dr. Truex addressed the student body as a whole during Community Meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 26. He opened his address by teaching the students how to say “hello” in Mandarin and continued to introduce new Mandarin words to the students as he went on with his presentation. Dr. Truex told the story of how a man with Hepatitis B, whom he met in China for coffee about fifteen years ago, became his hero. Dr. Truex described Lei Chuang as heroic because he devoted his life to ending the discrimination against those with Hepatitis B in China. Lei Chuang declared that he was going to write a letter to the Premier of China every day until the Premier agreed to meet with him over lunch, showing the people of China that there is nothing to fear about those afflicted with hepatitis B, and that those who have it should not be treated as lesser.

Dr. Truex closed his talk by saying that although the Premier never agreed to meet with Lei Chuang, that does not mean that he was not successful in life. Dr. Truex declared that success is defined by passion for what one does, not an end goal. He advised the students not to think about what they want to be in life, but to think about what they love to do.

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