Jim Preston, Ph.D.
"CULTURE SHOCK: THE NEW CHALLENGE IN A GLOBAL WORLD"
APR 25, 2010
Download the MP3 file of Jim Preston's talk here.
We live in a world where cultures collide. How do we negotiate this complex landscape? Everywhere we turn a new set of customs, values and religious ideas bombard us. This lecture will address these issues through the discipline of cultural anthropology.
Culture shock is an endemic condition of modern life everywhere. How can we identify its characteristic psychological stages? Is it possible to make our visits with people from other cultures more meaningful? Most important, how can we live more successfully as global citizens in a pluralistic world? Culture shock is here to stay. We can either become victims of its potential violence or find ways to make it work for us constructively.
Dr. James Preston has taught for over thirty years at the State University of New York as Professor of Anthropology and Chair of the Religious Studies Program. He has published numerous books and articles on a wide variety of topics in symbolic anthropology and religious studies. He has conducted field work on Hinduism in India and among Native American Catholic populations in the United States and Canada. Dr. Preston is particularly interested in the interface between psychology and anthropology. Most of his research has been concerned with the nature of religious experience.
At present he is teaching in both humanities and behavioral science programs at Sonoma State University and Santa Rosa Junior College. Recently he has taught in the Life Long Learning Programs at Oakmont and the University of California at Berkeley.