NEH Silk Roads Institute Final Presentation
Robin Kietlinski
Department of History
City University of New York – Baruch College
Introduction:
 Though my specialty is modern Japanese history, at Baruch I taught global history
 Main objective of taking part in the institute was to gain a more nuanced understanding of
global history, particularly pre-history, which is, again, not my specialty
 I am sure many here have to teach these intro level classes that reach well beyond our
narrow areas of expertise
 Hope that this presentation will offer some thoughts on how the material we covered in the
past five weeks could be worked into a global history course, specifically a MODERN (post1500) global history course
 Overarching theme that I will try to get at is how to historicize globalization. In other words,
if one were to use or infuse the theme of globalization into a course on modern world
history, how can the material covered in this institute help to flesh out and complicate the
notion of globalization
SLIDE: Excerpt of the introductory paragraph for my Global History post-1500 course (read aloud)
 Before teaching the class and designing the syllabus, I chose the textbook: Jerry H. Bentley
and Herbert F. Ziegler. Traditions & Encounters: A Global Perspective on the Past. Volume II
(From 1500 to the Present), Fourth Edition.
 Chose the theme of “globalization” based on the textbook
 Largely focused on getting through the content and less attention was given to pedagogy
SLIDE: Current 3-part breakdown of course
NOTE: Titles of these three sections were taken directly from textbook
1) The Origins of Global Interdependence (1500-1800)
2) The Age of Revolution, Industry, & Empire (1750-1914)
3) Contemporary Global Realignments (1914-present)
How will I infuse the past 5 weeks’ material into this course?
 Add a QUESTION MARK to “The Origins of Global Interdependence.”
 WHY does this 2-part textbook series decide to label the early modern period as being the
“origin” of global interdependence?
 Propose inserting a 4th “mini-unit” on the real origins of global interdependence
 Particularly important for those (most of the) students who do not take the pre-1500 global
history course (not a prerequisite)
Material covered in this “mini-unit” will be drawn largely (if not fully) from this institute
SLIDE: The Real Origins of Global Interdependence
Goal: Push back the idea of “globalization” to well before the 15th century (when the textbook
begins its discussion of European explorers)
Challenge: To present the volume of material in both a concise and nuanced manner
 Given the huge volume of material covered in the institute, challenge will be to
somehow encapsulate the material in a very concise way
 I.e., somehow boil down these 5 weeks of complex, multifaceted discussions about the
“silk roads” into a couple major themes that will be most helpful in getting students to
gain a deeper and more nuanced understanding of global history in the early modern
and modern eras
Another (related) Goal/Challenge: Extracting the notion of “globalization” from the notion of
“Westernization.” (CLICK)
 If the “origins” of global interdependence are presented (in the text) has having emanated
from Western explorers, it is understandable that students might conflate the ideas
 In forcing students to push back their understanding of globalization, hope is that they can
see that Europeans have not necessarily been involved in global interactions, especially in
the pre-modern context
 Get students to think about how Western culture has been influenced by the non-West, in
addition to the other way around
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All would fall under the umbrella of “Silk Roads” – might specifically include:
Discussion of transmission of religions, namely Buddhism and perhaps Islam, across Asia
Because of the necessarily concise nature of this lesson in a modern global history course,
an idea would be to divide the class into groups, have each group read excerpts from premodern “explorers,” and report back to the class what sort of cross-cultural interactions
they learned about. For example:
o Persian historian/physician Rashid Al-Din
 Wrote the Compendium of Chronicles (universal history) in early 14th century
 1247-1318
 first “global historian”
 Important source for Mongol history
o Marco Polo
 1254-1324
 Introduced Europeans to Central/East Asia
o Ibn Battuta
 1304-1369
 Moroccan who traveled much of North and East Africa, the Middle East,
South Asia, Southeast Asia and into China
o Zheng He’s vovages
 1371-1435
 perhaps ending the mini-unit with Zheng He would contrast nicely with the
beginning of the text – would provide a good discussion about why the
authors began with Vasco de Gama and his (also all-Western)
contemporaries
NOTE: Other textbook that begins with discussion of non-Western explorers
 Encounters in World History: Sources and Themes from the Global Past, Vol. 2: From
1500 (by Sanders, Nelson, Morillo & Ellenberger)
o Includes excerpts from first-hand accounts by Ibn Battuta and the stone tablet
inscription about Zheng He’s voyages (because, as you know, the Ming court
officials destroyed Zheng He’s official travel logs.
One way I thought would be effective in getting students to understand pre-modern crosscultural interaction:
Activity to see the ways that various peoples along the silk roads have interacted from well
before 1500
 Trip to a museum to look at specific visual evidence of the long history of cross-cultural
interaction across the various “Silk Routes”; e.g., Buddhist images from India to China;
Chinese motifs in Persian/Middle Eastern art
o Belt buckle from around 3rd century BC Mongolia
 Burial mounds contained golden objects made in a variety of styles that
reflect contacts with Greece, Persia, and China.
o Standing Buddha from mid-5th century China
 Buddha wears the three traditional garments of an Indian monk: an
underskirt, an intermediate garment, and a voluminous shawl.
th
o 14 century Persian illustration of a royal Mongol funeral procession
 Shows extent of the Mongol empire in Yuan dynasty
 Also portrays very clearly how there was cross-cultural interaction taking
place well before 1500, when the text claims that global interdependence
“originated”
These images all came from the Timeline of Art History on the website of the Metropolitan Museum
of Art – so you don’t need to be in NYC to do this activity, could just show the images
Became acutely aware during course of this institute that I need to take greater advantage of the
fact that my school is located in one of the cultural capitals of the world
 Compiled a list of New York City’s rich Silk Road resources
SLIDE: Silk Roads Resources in NYC
NOTE: Most of the websites listed here have significant online resources as well and are worth
checking out even if you are not going to be in or near NYC
The China Institute (mentioned by Prof. Rossabi in relation to the “From Silk to Oil” publication that
they put out
http://www.china360online.org/
o From the CI website: “New York’s premier resource for arts and culture programs on
China. Distinguished scholars, professors, curators, writers and artists present
lectures, short courses, symposia, films and workshops that contextualize traditional
and contemporary Chinese art and culture.”
o NOTE: From their website, you can download PDF files of the “From Silk to Oil”
publication (which is aimed primarily at instructors at the high school level), or there
is someone you can email to get a copy mailed to you.)
o ALSO NOTE: If you have it mailed to you, it costs $10 shipping/handling
o Although it may be targeted at a more basic instructional level, there are a lot of
seemingly useful materials, especially maps and a comprehensive timeline that goes
from about 1000 BCE (discovery of silk in Egyptian tombs, which suggests the
presence of trade across Eurasia up until the 1990s (breakup of the Soviet Union
and creation of independent republics in Central Asia)
Columbia University Weatherhead Institute
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/weai/
o Center for research, teaching, and publishing on modern and contemporary Asia,
covering China, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, the Korean peninsula, and the countries
of Southeast Asia; in recent years the scope has expanded to include Tibet and Inner
Asia.
o Interdisciplinary center, focus is on the humanities and social sciences
o Co-sponsor events across NYC, e.g., Samurai in New York (1860) exhibit going on
now at the Museum of the City of New York
o During the school year (especially), they have regular brown-bag lunch
presentations & roundtable symposia – Huge range of topics
o Sponsor multiple speaker series, including a few big-name speakers each year (in
the past few years, these speakers have included the president of Mongolia, the
prime minister of Thailand, and the Dalai Lama, Xu Bing (contemporary Chinese
artist mentioned during the Q&A session with Steve Goldberg & Roger) (CLICK)
SLIDE: More NYC Resources
Metropolitan Museum of Art
http://www.metmuseum.org/
 Huge amount of artwork in their permanent collections from all time periods and all regions
of the Silk Roads
 Also can get guided tours, ongoing lecture series, etc.
 Great online resources on their website as well – e.g., huge number of thematic essays,
maps, tons of images of artwork with accompanying essays – good for use in classes
 E.g., From home page  works of art  art history timeline (excellent resource)
 Current exhibits:
o Mastering the Art of Chinese Painting: Xie Zhiliu (1910-1997) (“shay jer-leo”) (until
Aug. 1, 2010) – one of modern China’s leading traditional artists – painting and
calligraphy
o Celebration: The Birthday in Chinese Art (until Nov. 28, 2010)
 Upcoming exhibit mentioned by Prof. Rossabi:
o The World of Khubilai Khan: Chinese Art in the Yuan Dynasty (Sept. 28, 2010 – Jan. 2,
2011)
Asia Society
http://www.asiasociety.org/
 Founded in 1956, Asia Society is a nonpartisan, nonprofit educational institution with offices in a
number of countries and cities, including (in the US): Houston, Los Angeles, New York, San
Francisco, and Washington, DC.
 Have a full event calendar of lectures, book signings, panel discussions, etc.
 Also a gallery in NYC location and ongoing film series throughout the year
 Great multimedia website, also potentially useful for classes
 Post a lot of segments from their lecture series online as video clips, along with a database of
podcasts
Korea Society and Japan Society have similarly full event/film/gallery schedule
http://www.koreasociety.org/
http://www.japansociety.org/
Rubin Museum of [Himalayan] Art
http://www.rmanyc.org/
 Art from the Himalayas and surrounding regions
 Collection consists of paintings, sculptures & textiles
 Works of art range in date over 2000 years – most comes from 12th century onward