On the morning of October 5, 2023, the 118th lecture of the Think Tank Construction Series of the Middle East Studies Institute (MESI) of Shanghai International Studies University (SISU) was held at Hongkou Campus. Tim Niblock, Professor Emeritus of the University of Exeter, Professor of the Institute of International and Regional Studies at Tsinghua University, and International Honorary Advisor of the MESI at SISU, was invited to give a lecture titled Regional Studies - Creating a Discipline, Shaping a Methodology.

  The lecture was hosted by Professor Ding Jun, Director of the MESI at SISU, and attended by Mao Xiaohong, Deputy Director (in charge) of SISU Foreign Cooperation and Exchange Department. Niu Song, Zhang Yuan, Han Jianwei, Shu Meng and other researchers, as well as some current graduate students and international students of the MESI also attended the lecture. During the lecture, Professor Niblock interacted and exchanged views with the students and faculty on the topic setting and discipline development of Chinese regional studies.