Identifier

UA 53.32

Dates

1982-2001

Extent

1.96 linear feet (1 document case, 1 small document case, 1 oversize box)

Abstract

Geoffrey and Sue Grant were professors of rural sociology and English at South Dakota State University. This collections consists of material from their trips to China.

Historical Note

Born July 13, 1941 in Evanston, Illinois, Geoffrey W. Grant began teaching in South Dakota State University’s Rural Sociology Department in 1977, becoming an Assistant Professor there in 1980.

In 1964, he received his B.S. in Sociology from Carroll College. From the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, he received his M.A in Sociology in 1969 and his Ph.D. in Sociology in 1980.

On June 29, 1964, he married Sue S. Grant; later Sue worked for South Dakota State University. They had one child, Jeremy Grant, born November 12, 1971. In 1985, Jeremy was living in Fairfield, Iowa.

Prior to teaching at SDSU, Dr. Grant was an instructor at University of Nebraska-Lincoln (1968-1970), an Assistant Professor at Parsons College in Fairfield, Iowa (1970-1972), and an Instructor at Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa (1972-1975).

During his time at SDSU, Dr. Grant’s responsibilities were 100% in teaching, including these areas of interest: social organization, social change, the family, juvenile delinquency, urban sociology, and sociology of work.

He made at least three extensive trips to China. First in 1979, as a member of a delegation of scholars, researchers and writers assembled by the Eisenhower Foundation for the Prevention of Violence, he was a guest of the Chinese Ministry of Justice for five weeks, touring criminal justice facilities and meeting with Judges, lawyers, etc., in five major Chinese cities.

The second trip in 1987, again with the Eisenhower Foundation, they visited five Chinese cities and met with criminal justice professional, except in Lhasa, Tibet, where they spent five days but with no professional meetings.

In the spring of 2001, Professor Grant was the SDSU faculty exchange professor to Yunnan Normal University in Kunming, China, the “City of Eternal Spring.” He taught two classes of junior composition and one senior class in tourism for the English Department. His wife, Sue Grant, taught three classes of English in a neighboring campus of YNU. The semester lasted from February to mid-July.

In 2003, as project of the Brookings Human Rights Committee, Dr. Grant conducted and reported on the “Brookings Human Rights Committee Survey of Discrimination, 2003,” which was to serve as a baseline for measuring trends, change, etc.

Content Notes

This collection includes printouts of 2001 emails from Geoffrey and Sue Grant to friends in USA, written while they were in Kunming, China, and recounting their experiences and views of life in Kunming and at Yunnan University. It also includes a CD-ROM with “Hundreds of .jpg pictures—Kunming, Beijing and Tibet” and the draft introduction (by Ronald J. Troyer of Drake University) to what would become the book “Social Control in the People’s Republic of China” (1989), which is in Box 2, File 28. One folder includes materials relating to the US and SD Departments of Transportation and to SD LTAP (Local Transportation Assistance Program).

Also included are printed materials relating to the Eisenhower Foundation sponsored trips to China, including correspondence, briefing package, journals, reports, descriptions of specific daily visits, detailing “important local officials”, participants, as well as interpreters, etc. The majority are dated 1987, but there is one each from 1983 and 1984. The two from 1988 and later include SDSU’s “China Exchange Program” and the book, “Social Control in the People’s Republic of China” (1989) with a chapter by Dr. Grant, “The Family and Social Control: Traditional and Modern.” Finally research will find approximately 49 oversize 19x13 color photographs of daily life in China (all that had labels stated 2001 Kunming).

SDSU Archives and Special Collections

Follow this link for more information:

https://www.sdstate.edu/sdsu-archives-and-special-collections/university-archives

Language

English

Publisher

South Dakota State University Archives and Special Collections, Hilton M. Briggs Library, Brookings, South Dakota.

Rights

Copyright restrictions apply in different ways to different materials. Many of the documents and other historical materials in the Archives are in the public domain and may be reproduced and used in any way. There are other materials in the Archive carrying a copyright interest and must be used according to the provisions of Title 17 of the U.S. Code. The Archive issues a warning concerning copyright restrictions to every researcher who requests copies of documents. Although the copyright law is under constant redefinition in the courts, it is ultimately the responsibility of the researcher to properly use copyrighted material.

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