The consequences of waste flows in China, produced in part by its growing industrialization, will be the focus of the next event in the Modern China Lecture Series at Cal State San Bernardino, “China’s Changing Waste-Scapes,” on Wednesday, March 23.

With China’s globalization and industrialization, the flow of materials to support its growing economy increases. So, too, has the country’s waste flows.

China leads the world in recycling, importing more scrap copper, aluminum, paper, and plastic than anywhere else on earth. It also leads the world in environmental problems, including toxic rivers, polluted air, lead-laced soils and cancer villages.

Joshua Goldstein, an associate professor of history and East Asian languages and cultures at the University of Southern California, will present the talk, which will begin at noon in CSUSB’s John M. Pfau Library, room PL-4005. The public is welcome to attend the free lecture; parking at the university is $6.

Goldstein’s talk will focus specifically on solid matter — garbage, electronic waste, recyclables — and tour China’s uneven and shifting “wastescapes.”

This event is free and open to the public.

Goldstein joined the USC faculty in 2005. Before that he was assistant professor at Franklin & Marshall College in Pennsylvania for five years, and a visiting faculty member at Yale. He also lectured at Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1998-99.

Goldstein’s many publications include “Drama Kings: Players and Publics in the Re-creation of Peking Opera, 1860-1937” (UC Press, 2007) and “Everyday Modernity in China” (University of Washington, 2006), co-edited with Madeline Yue Dong.

The Modern China Lecture Series was initiated to promote awareness of important issues related to China for those on the CSUSB campus and in the community. In the series of more than 20 lectures, workshops, and roundtable forums since January 2014, China scholars from UC San Diego, UC Riverside, the Claremont Colleges, UCLA, and other institutions have visited the CSUSB campus to share their expertise and opinions.

Speakers have included specialists in history, economics, political science, philosophy, finance, security studies, literature, anthropology and other fields.

The Modern China Lecture Series is sponsored by the CSUSB History Club/Phi Alpha Theta Chapter, the CSUSB Department of History, the Intellectual Life Fund, the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, the College of Extended Learning, the John M. Pfau Library, the College of Business and Public Administration, the departments of dociology and anthropology, and the University Diversity Committee.

For more information on the March 23 event or the Modern China Lecture Series, contact Jeremy Murray, assistant history professor, at (909) 537-5540 or jmurray@csusb.edu.

Set in the foothills of the beautiful San Bernardino Mountains, CSUSB is a preeminent center of intellectual and cultural activity in inland Southern California. Celebrating its 50thanniversary in 2015-2016, CSUSB serves more than 20,000 students each year and graduates about 4,000 students annually.

For more information about Cal State San Bernardino, contact the university’s Office of Strategic Communication at (909) 537-5007 and visit news.csusb.edu.