David Zurick, Foundation Professor of Geography at Eastern Kentucky University, was this month’s featured speaker in our “Far Away Places” series.
David Zurick, Foundation Professor of Geography at Eastern Kentucky University, was this month’s featured speaker in our “Far Away Places” series on the evening of November 20, 2014 at Barnes & Noble Booksellers. He traveled to Tibet in the summer of 2013 in support of his new book and film. Along with cinematographer Chris Radcliffe, he completed the ritual pilgrimage around Mt. Kailash, crossing an 18,600 foot pass and spending nights in monasteries and pilgrim guesthouses.
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David Zurick, Foundation Professor of Geography, EKU
David Zurick, Foundation Professor of Geography at Eastern Kentucky University, is this month’s featured speaker in our Far Away Places series on Thursday, November 20th at 7 p.m. He traveled to Tibet in the summer of 2013 in support of his new book and film. Along with cinematographer Chris Radcliffe they completed the ritual pilgrimage around Mt. Kailash, crossing an 18,600 foot pass and spending nights in monasteries and pilgrim guesthouses.
Minstrels, Phuntsholing Valley, Tibet, 2010
His newest book Land of Pure Vision: The Sacred Geography of Tibet and the Himalaya has just been published by the University Press of Kentucky. Their film Sacred Geography: A Journey into the Heart of the Himalayas is in production.
Seven monks, Wara Monastery, Chamdo, Tibet, 2006
A Michigan native, Zurick received his NA and MA at Michigan State University in East Lansing and his PhD in Geography at the University of Hawaii at Manoa where his dissertation focused on Resource Processes and Regional Integration in Western Nepal. His grant founded research has taken him from the Smokey Mountains of Tennessee to Katmandu in Nepal. He’s studied sustainable agriculture in Nepal, ecotourism in Samoa and the South Pacific, Temple Gardens in Bali, landscape change in Bhutan and even Shangri La in the Geographical Imagination in Yunnan and Tibet.
Map of the Sacred Road, Yunnan, China, 2006
His teaching career has taken him from Port Huron, Michigan to the University of Hawaii at Manoa. In 1987 he joined the Geography Department at Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond where he’s taught courses like Tourism Development, Global Geopolitics, Regional Geography of Asia and Cultural Ecology. From 1997 to 2006 he was the Director of EKU’s Geographic Studies and Research Center.
Yumbulagang, Tibet, 2009
He’s the author, editor or major contributor of twelve books including the popular Errant Journeys; Adventure Travel in the Modern Age published by the University of Texas Press in 1995; Himalaya: Life on the Edge of the World published by Johns Hopkins University Press and a Choice Outstanding Book in 2000; Illustrated Atlas of the Himalaya published by the University Press of Kentucky in 2006 and the winner of the National Outdoor Book Award and selected as one of the Top Ten University Press Books of 2006 by Foreword Magazine; and Himalaya: Encounters with the Roof of the World published in 2011 by the Center for American Places/University of Chicago Press.
Event Flyer
The event is free and open to the public, and ‘swipeable’ for WKU students. We hope you’ll join us!