Press Release

LINDER APPOINTED UNITED BOARD’S PROGRAM DIRECTOR FOR CHINA

The United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia appointed Dr. Birgit Linder as Program Director for China. Dr. Richard J. Wood announced the appointment at the United Board’s trustees’ meeting in April 2005. Dr. Linder will assume office in July 2005 and will be based in Hong Kong at the Asian Christian Higher Education Institute, the program arm and representative office of the United Board.  

Dr. Linder, who hails from Germany, has several years of teaching experience in diverse settings. She taught at the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 1996 to 1998, at Beijing University from 2001-2002, and at Skidmore College since 2002. Besides teaching cross-cultural studies with a focus on Chinese literature, culture and language, she has administered summer abroad programs for students from the United States to China. Her current job provided opportunity to integrate Chinese studies into the college-wide curriculum, to foster relationships between Asian Studies faculty and other departments and institutes, and find innovative approaches that help implement a cross-disciplinary Chinese Studies curriculum. 

Dr. Linder received her Ph.D. in Modern Chinese Literature in the Department of East Asian Languages and Literature of the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She obtained a post-doctoral certificate in Modern Chinese and Comparative Literature from the Department of Chinese Language and Literature of Peking University. She speaks Putonghua fluently. 

As the Program Director for China, she will have direct oversight on programs of the United Board in mainland China and Hong Kong. She will continue to cultivate programmatic relations with grantee institutions along areas of faculty and leadership development and support for linkages and networks among colleges and universities. A special emphasis of the United Board program in mainland China is to assist those academic communities in greatest need, in the spirit of service as witness.  

In her move to Hong Kong, she will be accompanied by husband, Herbert Scott, two sons (Kai Benjamin, 13 years old and Lars Jakob, 10) and a daughter (Maja Kassandra, 5). 

In welcoming the appointment of Dr. Linder, Dr. David Kwang-sun Suh, Vice President for Programs, observes: “She will strengthen the team of Asian Institute’s program staff by adding to an already multi-national and multi-cultural perspective in our work of enhancing Christian presence in Asian higher education.” 

Announcing the appointment at the United Board trustees’ meeting in April,Dr. Richard Wood, President of United Board, said: “We had many well-qualified applicants, among whom Dr. Linder stood out as exceptionally well qualified – by training, commitment, and cross-cultural sensitivity.”