A special seminar later today will examine the combined appeal and repulsion of one of the most challenging figures in history, Gengis Khan.

Led by Dr Uradyn E Bulag, of Hunter College, City University of New York, and in association with the University’s Mongolian and Inner Asia Studies Unit, the seminar will examine Gengis Khan as a figure that continues to be an object of desire and repulsion across the world.

“Since the early 20th century, Gengis or Chinggis Khan has become an object of desire and repulsion to many nations and individuals in the world,” said Mr Bulag, a Visiting Fellow at CRASSH (Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities). “He has been identified by the Japanese as the 13th-century tragic hero Minamoto Yoshitsune, and recognized by the Chinese as 'the only Chinese who has ever defeated the Europeans'.

“His virtue and vice are equally captivating, as exemplified by the designations 'Chinggis Khan's Mongolia', or 'Genghis Bush', a nick-name for American president George W. Bush acquired in 2003 as a result of his decision to invade Iraq.”

Hunting Chinggis Khan's Skull and Soul: Eurasian Frontiers of Historical, Ideological and Racial Imaginations starts at 4.30pm and is open to all at CRASSH, 17 Mill Lane, Cambridge.

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