Asian scholar to speak on Burma relations April 17

LEWISBURG, Pa. -- David Steinberg, professor of Asian studies at Georgetown University, will give the talk, "Bucknell-Burma: The Dynamics of Changed Relations Over 50 Years," on Thursday, April 17, at 7 p.m. in the Elaine Langone Center Forum.

Free and open to the public, the talk continues the series, "Historic Relationship, Contemporary Challenge: The Burma-Bucknell Connection at 150 Years and Why It Matters Today," a semester-long celebration marking the relationship that started in 1858 when Maung Shaw Loo arrived from Burma to become Bucknell's first foreign exchange student.

Steinberg, a specialist on Burma-Myanmar, North Korea and South Korea, Southeast Asia, and U.S. policy in Asia, has previously visited Bucknell. He was present in 1958 when a representative of the president of Burma presented the Burma-Bucknell bowl to the University.

Asian Studies at Georgetown
He currently is the distinguished professor and director of Asian Studies at Georgetown.

Earlier, as a member of the Senior Foreign Service, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Department of State, he was director for Technical Assistance in Asia and the Middle East, and director for Philippines, Thailand, and Burma affairs.

Steinberg has authored 13 books, more than 100 articles and book chapters, and 250 op-ed columns.

Turmoil in Burma
His books include Turmoil in Burma: Contested Legitimacies in Myanmar (2006), Burma: The State of Myanmar (2001), Stone Mirror: Reflections on Contemporary Korea (2002), and The Republic of Korea. Economic Transformation and Social Change (1989).

In his latest book, Turmoil in Burma: Contested Legitimacies in Myanmar, Steinberg took an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the dynamic influences at work inside the country also known as Myanmar.

"This book is not an attempt to provide answers … rather it claims to clarify, not resolve, the unruly discourse by asking what the legitimacy questions really are in that society, to consider the complexity of the vituperative debate within and about Burma/Myanmar, and to examine the ideological and institutional means that have been employed to prop up or destroy the multiple contending forces seeking power, authority, and/or identity – and thus political legitimacy," Steinberg wrote.

Steinberg was educated at Dartmouth College; Lingnan University in Canton, China; Harvard University; and the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

Contact: Office of Communications

Posted March 28, 2008