Xu Hongwei, an associate professor of sociology at Queen’s College, New York City University was invited to give keynote speech at the Research Methods Seminar of the Institute of Advanced Studies in Social Sciences at ECUST from December 26th to 28th, 2018. The seminar was hosted by Tang Youcai, Deputy Director of the Humanities and Social Sciences Department. More than 30 teachers and graduate students from the School of Social Sciences, School of Business and School of Marxism attended the seminar and various issues on the research methods, big data analysis, aging issues, protection of migrant children and the floating population were exchanged.