Press release from UNC Asheville:
ASHEVILLE — Does China hold the key to preventing further escalation of the nuclear threat from North Korea? A panel of distinguished scholars and diplomats will discuss that question and U.S.-Asian relations in a free, public discussion from 7-8:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 9 in UNC Asheville’s Reuter Center, home of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.
Two area scholars, Jim Lenburg and Sarah-Ann Smith will be the panelists. Lenburg, professor emeritus at Mars Hill University, is a specialist in the history of U.S. foreign relations and U.S./China relations. He first visited China in 1978, had the opportunity to visit Tiananmen Square during the student demonstrations in 1989, and was a visiting professor at Jilin University in Changchun, China in 2004.
Smith, a former Foreign Service Officer and Chinese language officer, served at the U.S. Consulate in Hong Kong and at the State Department in Washington. Smith has accompanied Smithsonian Institution tours to China as a lecturer and led a private study tour to China. She was an adjunct faculty member at UNC Asheville and also has taught courses at Johns Hopkins University and other universities in Maryland. She is the author of Trang Sen: A Novel of Vietnam.
The discussion will be moderated by Elizabeth O. Colton, who won an Emmy for her coverage of world affairs for ABC News, and who has worked for many other national news organizations. She also is a veteran of the U.S. Foreign Service and serves as a moderator and trainer for online diplomacy courses offered by the United Nations. She also is a consultant linking people and groups internationally and is a visiting research scholar at UNC Asheville.
The panel discussion is presented in partnership by Leadership Asheville Forum, the World Affairs Council of Western North Carolina, and OLLI, the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at UNC Asheville. For more information, contact OLLI at olli@unca.edu or 828-251-6140.
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