Genghis Khan and Kublai Khan, Dr. Morris Rossabi

Genghis Khan and Kublai Khan: Barbarian Conquerors or Agents of Global Interactions, Dr. Morris Rossabi
Friday, February 16, 2018, 12pm

Portrayals of the thirteenth-century Mongol invasions rightly emphasize murders and considerable destruction. This lecture describes some of these disasters, but also depicts their more positive economic and cultural influences in Eurasian history. The presentation will also offer visual images from the Mongol era.

Professor Rossabi is a historian of China and Central and Inner Asia. He teaches courses on Inner Asian, East Asian, and Chinese history at Columbia. During the 2008–2009 academic year, he received an honorary doctorate from the National University of Mongolia (pictured at left). He and Mary Rossabi are involved in an oral history of 20th and 21st century Mongolia, which has led to the publication of Socialist Devotees and Dissenters; A Herder, a Trader, and a Lawyer; and The Practice of Buddhism in Kharkhorin and its Revival (National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka, 2010, 2012, and 2013). He has helped organize exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. He was on the advisory board of the Project on Central Eurasia of the Soros Foundation. The author of numerous articles and speeches, he travels repeatedly to Central Asia and Mongolia, where he teaches courses on Mongolian and East Asian history. He is also author of The Mongols and Global History (W.W. Norton, 2010); Modern Mongolia: From Khans to Commissars to Capitalists (University of California, 2005); and Khubilai Khan: His Life and Times (University of California, 1988).

Co-Sponsors: CSUSB History Department, History Club/Phi Alpha Theta, the College of Arts and Letters, the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, the College of Extended Learning, the Center for Global Management/College of Business and Public Administration, Pfau Library, and the Intellectual Life Fund. Thanks also to Pamela Crosson (History), Alan Llavore (Strategic Communications), and James Trotter (ATI). Please contact Jeremy Murray (History) with questions at [email protected].