HESBURGH LECTURE SERIES 2013 Program - Alumni Association ...

Lionel M. Jensen, Ph.D.
Chair and Associate Professor, East Asian Languages and Literature;
Concurrent Associate Professor, History; Fellow, Kellogg Institute for
International Studies, Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies
Biography
Lionel Jensen, who holds a Ph.D. in Chinese history from the University of California
(Berkeley), is an associate professor of East Asian languages and cultures and concurrent
associate professor of history. He also serves as faculty fellow in the Kellogg Institute for
International Studies and the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies. For more than two
decades, Jensen has taught courses in Chinese history, religion, philosophy, politics, and society
at Notre Dame, the University of Colorado, and the University of Pennsylvania.
Jensen is the author of Manufacturing Confucianism: Chinese Traditions and Universal
Civilization, recognized in 1998 as the best first book in the history of religions by the
American Academy of Religion. He has co-edited and co-authored four other works, Early China (1997), China beyond the
Headlines (2000), China Off Center: Mapping the Margins of the Middle Kingdom (2002), and China’s Transformations: the Stories
beyond the Headlines (2007). His research interests are in the areas of Chinese religion and thought, folklore, human rights,
informational technology, nationalism, and popular cults. He was named one of the 2000 Outstanding Scholars of the Twentieth
Century and is included in Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers.
Lectures
China, Tibet, and Taiwan: A Fateful Triangle
Categories
Government, History
In this lecture, participants will learn of the political and ideological dynamics of contemporary China by way of the history of its
relationship with two countries that it officially defines as part of the “motherland.” With the recent resurgence of anti-Chinese
unrest in Tibet and a democratic election in Taiwan that may shift the political balance of this country toward unification, it is
critical that we take stock of these current developments and their implications for the future of our relations with the second
most powerful country in the world. Participants will learn of the reasons for China’s claim of legitimate sovereignty over these
territories while also discovering the grounds of Taiwanese and Tibetan dissent, with an eye to imagining strategies for peaceful
resolution.
Today’s China: The Olympics and Beyond
There is no nation more prominent in the spectrum of world economy and politics than the People’s Republic of China,
something made evident by Beijing’s hosting of the summer games of the XXIX Olympiad. China is a force to be reckoned with.
It is a place that we must understand. This slideshow lecture is designed to offer a window from which to observe and better
understand this nation and its people. This lecture is drawn from Jensen’s recent co-edited work, China’s Transformation: the
Stories behind the Headlines, and provides a multidimensional exposure to today’s China. In the course of the lecture, participants
will be introduced to the country’s complex human geography and thereby move beyond its conventional popular representation
in western broadcast and print media. This lecture explores such critical issues as environmental degradation, ethnicity, film and
literature, the Internet, language, nationalism, news reporting, religion, unemployment, and the human costs of the economic
boom and the startling relevance of China for the U.S.
The Hesburgh Lecture Series, 2013 Program 49