Presentation Topic Suggestions

A presentation should generally be about 20 minutes long, leaving time for discussion of the day’s readings as well as of your presentation.  If you decide on a much longer presentation, please discuss it with the coordinator.

In choosing a topic for a presentation, try to find one is especially interesting to you. Your enthusiasm for the topic will make for a better presentation.

You may decide just to expand upon some aspect of the assigned readings for the class at which you present.  You may come having prepared as the leader of a class discussion, rather than as one who is delivering a talk as such.

The following is a list of topics that might appeal to you, but these are suggestions only.

Early Chinese Adventurers:  Gan Ling, Li Guanling, Zhang Qian, Fachien et al.

The Greeks, the Romans and the Silk Road

Buddhism, India and China

The Geography Travelled by Xuanzang and Stein in Western China

Stein’s Men, Animals and Supplies

Comparison of Stein’s and Xuanzang’s Lifetime Travels

The Tales Told in the Photographs by Aurel Stein

Xuanzang and Buddhist History

Monkey, or The Journey to the West

The Diamond Sutra

Turfan, Gaochang and Kocho

Cities of the Tarim Basin

The Mysterious Tocharians

The Mummies of the Tarim Basin 

Archeological Ethics: Lord Elgin, Aurel Stein and Archeology Today