Introduction to the Research Department of Mao Zedong Thought
The Mao Zedong Thought Research Department currently consists of six researchers, including one Professor (Research Fellow), two Associate Professors (Associate Research Fellows), and three Assistant Professors (Assistant Research Fellows), as well as one doctoral supervisor and one master’s supervisor.
The primary research fields of the department’s researchers include Mao Zedong Thought, the life of Comrade Mao Zedong, ideology, Party history, party-building, culture, the Sinicization of Marxism and its academic history, and the history of the development of Marxism. The department hosts several major, key, and specially commissioned projects under the National Social Science Fund of China (including those within the Central Marxism Theory Research and Construction Project [1]), academic grant projects, post-hoc funding projects, and general projects. It also manages major investigative research projects for the Cyberspace Administration of China, major projects under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) Marxism Theory Research and Construction Project, and research topics commissioned by the Central Propaganda Department. Members of the department have participated as primary expert members of the writing groups for key textbooks of the Central Marxism Theory Research and Construction Project and the doctoral-level ideological and political theory course syllabus, Sinicized Marxism and the Contemporary Era.
Representative research achievements of the department include Research on the Party’s Ideological Thought in the New Era, Capacity Building for Ideological Competence Among Leading Cadres in the New Period, and Research on the Party’s Style of Work [2] Building in the Early Period of the Founding of New China (1949–1950). The department has published over 400 theoretical articles and more than 80 internal reports [3] in journals such as Marxism Studies, Political Science Research, Economic Research, Journal of Ideological and Theoretical Education, Studies on Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping Theories, World Socialism Studies, Ideological and Education Research, Red Flag Manuscript, Party Building, Internal Manuscripts of Chinese Social Sciences, China Party and Government Cadres Forum, Frontline, Shandong Social Sciences, Ningxia Social Sciences, Gansu Social Sciences, Mao Zedong Research, and Mao Zedong Thought Studies. Among these, more than 200 articles were published in core journals, and many have been reprinted by publications such as Selected Works for Learning, Chinese Social Science Digest, the Renmin University of China (RUC) Photocopied Newspaper and Periodical Materials (specifically the Communist Party of China and Ideological and Political Education series), Marxism Digest, Xinhua Digest, and Red Flag Digest. Additionally, the department has published over ten monographs.
Researchers in the department have been awarded honorary titles such as National High-Level Young Top-Notch Talent and CASS Young Top-Notch Talent. One monograph was selected as an Outstanding National Party Building Publication (13th Edition).
The department specifically organizes the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Forum on Mao Zedong Thought, which is one of the ten major forums of the CASS Marxism Theory Research and Construction Project. Founded in 2014 and held annually, the forum has become one of the most influential national forums in the field of Mao Zedong Thought research. The department also undertook and completed the writing of The History of the Development of Mao Zedong Thought, which is the fourth volume of the History of the Development of Marxism. The CASS Forum on Mao Zedong Thought is part of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences’ series of forums for the Construction of Marxist Theoretical Disciplines and the Marxism Theory Research and Construction Project. As an authoritative forum in the field of Mao Zedong Thought research, it aims to strengthen exchanges among scholars nationwide and promote the in-depth development of research into Mao Zedong Thought.