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Portland State University will once again host free lectures this summer featuring internationally renowned professors starting June 27.

The “Tour the World at Home this Summer” series, a 25-year PSU tradition, highlights visiting scholars from countries such as China, France and Turkey (listed below). The brown-bag lecture series is every Wednesday, June 27 and July 11–August 8, from noon–1 p.m. in the Smith Memorial Student Union Multicultural Center, room 228 (1825 SW Broadway). All lectures are free and open to the public.

The lectures provide a unique perspective and an international point of view from faculty whose specialists range from French advertising to Buddhist philosophy. This year the lecture series is showcasing six visiting professors. For more information, contact Dawn White, Office of International Affairs, at 503-725-5075. Additional information is also available at www.oia.pdx.edu/ivpp/.

Schedule of Events:
Wednesday, June 27, “The Population Issue in China: Its Past and Present,” Tianxiang Zhan (China)
Tianxiang Zhan received his master’s from the department of history at Zhejiang University, where he currently teaches. Zhan travels and lectures extensively at American universities and international conferences, including the Friends World Program, Wharton International Forum and the Symposium on International Education. This year marks his 10th anniversary as a visiting professor to PSU.

Wednesday, July 4, Fourth of July Holiday - no lecture

Wednesday, July 11, “Images of French Society in French Advertising,” Francine Tolron (France)
Francine Tolron is a professor at the University of Avignon in southern France, where she teaches courses in New Zealand and British Cultural Studies. Her PSU course on French advertising, taught in French, provides a rich ground for studying both language and culture in a vein that is at the same time serious and highly entertaining.

Wednesday, July 18, “Making This World a Better Place to Live,” Venerable Geshe Kalsang Damdul (Tibet)
Venerable Geshe Kalsang Damdul received his Geshe degree (doctorate in Buddhist philosophy) from Drepung Loseling Monastery in South India. In 1985, he was appointed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama as assistant director of the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics, a position he holds today. Geshe Kalsang Damdul has taught at American universities and Buddhist centers, and has directed study groups in Canada.

Wednesday, July 25, “Non-Culpable Ignorance and Just War Theory,” Jovan Babic (Serbia and Montenegro)
Jovan Babic is professor of philosophy at Belgrade University, Serbia and Montenegro. In 2000, a MacArthur Foundation grant brought him to the U.S. to collaborate on a writing project on the ethical dimensions of transitional justice. While in the states, he spent three years at PSU as a visiting scholar and professor. Since then Babic has returned annually to teach philosophy courses in PSU’s Summer Session.

Wednesday, August 1, “The Retail Revolution in Europe and America,” Cristina Ziliani (Italy)
Cristina Ziliani is professor of direct, database and internet marketing at the University of Parma, where she also earned a full honors degree in economics. She was a visiting doctoral student at Oxford and Stirling Universities in the United Kingdom before earning her doctorate in marketing from the University of Milan. Loyalty marketing is one of her areas of specialization.

Wednesday, August 8, “Art in the Streets: Contemporary Art in Public Spaces,” Zerrin Iren Boynudelik (Turkey)
A professor of art and design at Yildiz Technical University in Turkey, Zerrin Iren Boynudelik spent part of the 2004–05 academic year as a Fulbright Scholar at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. During that time she guest lectured at Portland State on historical places and contemporary art works. She earned her doctorate at Istanbul Technical University.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (#07-077)

Source: Dawn White (503-725-5075)
PSU Office of International Affairs