University of Pittsburgh
April 5, 2006

China Scholar Pan Guang to Deliver Two Lectures at Pitt, One on the Jewish Experience in China and the Other on China's Anti-terror Strategy

Contact: 

PITTSBURGH-The experiences of Jews in China as well as China's current anti-terror campaign will be the subjects of two free public lectures by Pan Guang, a China scholar and the director of the Shanghai Center for International Studies. The lectures will be held April 10 at the University of Pittsburgh.

In his first lecture, titled "The Jewish Experience in Shanghai" and sponsored by Pitt's Jewish Studies Program and the University Center for International Studies' Asian Studies Center (ASC), Pan will discuss the evolution of the Jewish community in Shanghai, from a stop on the Sephardic East Asian travel network to a refuge for Jews fleeing Stalin's Soviet Union and Hitler's Germany. It will take place at 2 p.m. in Room 501 of the Cathedral of Learning, 4200 Fifth Ave., Oakland.

In his second lecture, titled "China's Anti-terror Strategy and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization" and sponsored by ASC and Pitt's Matthew B. Ridgway Center for International Security Studies, Pan will address the historical and theoretical basis of China's anti-terror campaign, as well as the specific anti-terror strategies of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). The SCO is an international intergovernmental organization that brings together China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan to foster trust and cooperation. The lecture will take place at 4 p.m. in 3430 Posvar Hall, 230 Bouquet St., Oakland.

Pan is the director of the SCO's Studies Center in Shanghai; dean of the Center of Jewish Studies, Shanghai; director and professor at the Institute of European and Asian Studies at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences; and vice chair of the Chinese Society of Middle East Studies. He has published articles on a variety of topics, including Jews in China, China in the Middle East, and China's relations with Russia and Central Asia.

###

4/6/06/tmw