Professor Shijun Tong, Chinese philosopher and Chancellor of NYU Shanghai, visited the University of Rijeka as part of his short-term mobility visit to Southeast Europe. His visit to Rijeka followed stops in Belgrade and Dubrovnik and was organized within the framework of the Rectors’ Forum of Southeast Europe and the Western Balkans.
Professor Tong, accompanied by his spouse, visited the University of Rijeka Rectorate on October 7, 2025, where he was welcomed by Prof. Marta Žuvić, Ph.D., Interim Vice-Rector for Studies, Students and QA, Prof. Saša Drezgić, Ph.D., Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Business, and Assoc. Prof. Sanja Bojanić, Ph.D., Head of the Centre for Advanced Studies of Southeastern Europe (CAS SEE) and Acting Director of the UNIRI Future Institute.
During his stay in Rijeka, Professor Tong met with UNIRI representatives to discuss potential avenues of collaboration, particularly in the area of postdoctoral residency programmes.
Shijun Tong became the second Chancellor of NYU Shanghai on June 1, 2020. A scholar of Western and Chinese philosophy, he served as an administrator and professor of philosophy at East China Normal University for more than 20 years. He is actively involved in international academic fora and is highly recognized by colleagues in China and abroad, particularly for his scholarship on critical theory and the works of contemporary philosopher Jürgen Habermas. He earned his Ph.D. at the University of Bergen (Norway) in 1994, where he later served as a visiting scholar. He was also a guest lecturer at Philipps-Universität Marburg (Germany) and a Fulbright Research Scholar at Columbia University. He is a member of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, and in 2011, he was elected a Foreign Member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters (Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi). He is the author of 10 books, many scholarly articles, translations, and joint publications, and a recipient of numerous awards and honors for his teaching, research, and writing.
