News from SUNY Cortland

For more information contact: Jean Palmer, 607-753-2232

Community Roundtable On May 1 At SUNY Cortland To Focus On China

CORTLAND, NY (04/22/2008; 0900)(readMedia)-- Three SUNY Cortland faculty and staff members will discuss life-changing experiences from their first-ever trip to China at a community roundtable on Thursday, May 1, at SUNY Cortland.

Titled “China Up Close,” the roundtable takes place between 8-9 a.m. in the College’s Park Center Hall of Fame Room. Sponsored by the President’s Office and the College’s Center for Educational Exchange, the event is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served at 7:45 a.m. The Park Center is located off Tompkins Street and parking is available in the Park Center lot.

Panelists for the discussion include Christopher Cirmo, professor and chair of geology; Valerie Jones, coordinator of field placement; and William Skipper, assistant professor of sociology and anthropology.

The speakers will engage the audience in a discussion about China, the world’s most populous country with more than 1.3 billion people. In June 2007, Cirmo, Jones and Skipper were three of 15 SUNY Cortland faculty and administrators who were guests of Capital Normal University in Beijing, China, as part of an initiative to strengthen the longstanding relationship between the two institutions. The travelers shared knowledge, shattered stereotypes and forged new ties as they grew to understand the spirit of the Chinese people.

The panelists will talk about what they experienced while visiting the capital city, the university, public schools, historic sites, museums, the 2008 Olympic sites, shopping malls, street markets, homes, wetlands and rural areas.

“I will focus my talk on the urbanization of China and how Beijing is addressing some issues of education and wetlands,” said Cirmo, a specialist in environmental geology who joined the SUNY Cortland faculty in 1998.

“My talk will provide a glimpse into the educational system in Beijing, as well as the cultural attractions and historic sites,” said Jones, who joined the SUNY Cortland faculty in 2006 after earning her bachelor’s degree in social studies and history from the College in 2002.

Skipper said he would offer his impressions of the current spirit of China and, to a lesser extent, what that means for the world and us.

“As an anthropologist I am very much of the opinion that societies consist not only of particular social structures and a particular set of norms, values and worldviews, but also of a much less easily identifiable but extremely important ‘something’ – the spirit of the people of a place,” said Skipper, who joined the SUNY Cortland faculty in 1996 and has a doctorate in anthropology from Cornell University. “I will illustrate the basis for these impressions visually and provide supporting data when appropriate, but essentially, I will present my own observations and thoughts about what China and the Chinese seem to feel about themselves and their place in the world today.”

For more information on the Community Roundtable series, contact the Center for Educational Exchange at (607) 753-4214 or visit the Web site at www.cortland.edu/cee.

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