April 6, 2004

Public Invited To Hear Two Speakers In Boise State Anthropology Series

The community is invited to hear two anthropology speakers at Boise State University this month. David Wilkens will address “Ongoing Research into the Geomorphic History of the Coral Pink Sand Dunes, Kan County, Utah” at 3 p.m. Thursday, April 15. Aram Yengoyan will speak on “Simmel and Mann on the Tragedy of Modern Culture: Anthropological Reflections on German Thought, 1880s-1930s” at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 21. Both speakers will be in the Student Union Brink Room. There is no charge. Wilkens will present his research on the evolution and nature of the Coral Pink Sand Dunes in southern Utah. He will look at underlying controls in the dune-field formation using ground-penetrating radar, as well as changes in dune activity over the past few centuries based on radiocarbon and dendrochronological data. Wilkins is an assistant professor of geosciences at Boise State. His talk is presented by the Friends of Anthropology. Yengoyan will explore the general sense of disenchantment and disillusionment that developed in European intellectual circles in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Using the writings of philosopher/sociologist Georg Simmel and novelist Thomas Mann, Yengoyan will look at the relationship between ideas of culture and criticism, politics and aesthetics, and culture and civilization in German intellectual culture. Yengoyan is a professor at the University of California, Davis. His talk is part of the Department of Anthropology Lecture Series. -30- Contact Mark Plew Department of anthropology 208 426-3444 Media Contact Kathleen Craven communications and marketing 208 426-3275