For Immediate Release—Tuesday, Oct.17, 2006

 

Contact:

Mary E. McCrank

Media Relations Officer

(585) 245-5516

mccrank@geneseo.edu

 

SUNY Geneseo's Anthropology Department Presents "The Dalai Lama and Tibet: Myths and Realities"

GENESEO, N.Y.—The State University of New York at Geneseo's anthropology department will present a lecture by A. Tom Grunfeld, a professor of history at Empire State College in New York City at 4 p.m. Nov. 9 in 214 Newton Hall at the State University of New York at Geneseo. The talk is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be provided.

Grunfeld is a SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor at Empire State College of the State University of New York. He is a historian who specializes in the teaching of modern East Asian history with an emphasis on China and Tibet and has been traveling and living in that region since 1966. He has published several books and more than 150 articles and book reviews including "The Making of Modern Tibet." He has lectured and presented papers at academic conferences in numerous countries around the world.

Grunfeld will talk about a popular topic. Americans are fascinated with Tibet, yet they know very little of its history or its relationships with China and the United States. This talk explores the social and political myths and realities of this incomparable land and people.

The New York Council for the Humanities is sponsoring the talk. The council, a private, not-for-profit organization works to ensure the presence of the humanities in the cultural life of New York state. Since its launch in 1983, the Council's Speakers in the Humanities program has linked distinguished scholars with diverse audiences through the presentation of lectures on a broad range of topics.

For more information, contact Ellen Kintz, professor and chair of the anthropology department, at (585) 245-5277.

###