How the blended learning will be implemented depends on the development of the pandemic; Details will be agreed upon with the participants at the beginning of the semester. Content: This Studienprojekte course explores the ways in which China’s sweeping Belt and Road Initiative is both shaping and re-shaping regional and transregional connections and transforming political,social and cultural configurations across Central Asia and China’s borderlands. The early sessions of the seminar examine historical relations between China and Central Asia before turning to contemporary developments leading up to the BRI. We then turnto detailed study of changing patterns of migration and mobility, ethnic relations, natural resource politics as well infrastructure development of transportation linkages, cultural politics and digital technologies. In this course, political science, anthropological and historical approaches are interlinked. This course is intended to be taken in combination with the accompanying seminar of the same name. Learning Objectives: To develop individual research projects related to the Belt and Road Initiative To learn aspects of research design and methodology relevant to carrying out these projects close