Identity elements
Reference code
Name and location of repository
Level of description
Papers
Title
Geoffrey and Sue Grant Papers
Date(s)
- 1982-2001 (Accumulation)
Extent
1.96 linear feet (1 document case, 1 small document case, 1 oversize box)
Name of creator
Biographical history
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.
Name of creator
Biographical history
Content and structure elements
Scope and content
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 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 19 in. x 13 in. color photographs of daily life in China (all that had labels stated 2001 Kunming).
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use elements
Conditions governing access
This collection is open to researchers without restrictions. The materials in the Archives do not circulate and may be used in-house only.
Researchers conducting extensive research are asked to make an advance appointment to access archival material. Please call or e-mail prior to visiting the collection and indicate as much detail as possible about a particular topic and intended use.
Physical access
Technical access
Conditions governing reproduction
South Dakota State University supports access to the materials, published and unpublished, in its collections. Nonetheless, access to some items may be restricted as a result of their fragile condition or by contractual agreements with donors.
Languages of the material
- English
Scripts of the material
Language and script notes
Finding aids
Acquisition and appraisal elements
Custodial history
Immediate source of acquisition
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information
Accruals
Related materials elements
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related archival materials
Related descriptions
Notes element
Specialized notes
Alternative identifier(s)
ID
ID
Description control element
Rules or conventions
Sources used
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
- Grant, Geoffrey W. (Subject)
- Grant, Sue S. (Subject)