Steven Leibo

Dr. Steven A. Leibo, Emeritus Professor at Russell Sage College in Upstate New York,  focuses on Modern International History & Politics. Until his recent retirement he taught courses on a range of topics from Modern China, the Modern Middle East, and Modern World History to classes on the History of Medicine, Climate Change and Big History a very ambitious course that covers history from the Big Bang to the arrival of Artificial Intelligence.

Dr. Leibo also taught at the State University of New York at Albany from 1986 to 2015. A former Fulbright scholar, Prof. Leibo specializes in the relationship between Asia and the West. Leibo has extensive experience leading study tours through Vietnam. Leibo is also a documentary filmmaker. His  film is From Albany to Saigon: Vietnam & the Capital Region is available for streaming on the internet.

Among scholars of Asia, Leibo is best known for his role with the international discussion group H-ASIA. In 1994 he and Frank Conlon created the list for the emerging H-NET organization. For the following ten years, until 2004 Leibo usually served as the list’s lead editor.

Leibo is probably best known to upstate New York residents for his work as an international political analyst for television, radio, and newspapers. During the Persian Gulf War of 1990-91 he served as the international political analyst for WTEN TV. Dr. Leibo has served as an international affairs commentator for WAMC Northeast Public Radio from 1997 to 2022.

In early 2007 Leibo was among those personally trained by Al Gore and The Climate Realty Project to give updated versions of the slide show featured in the Academy Award-winning film An Inconvenient Truth. He currently serves as a Climate “Mentor” for the organization and has given hundreds of talks  on global warming in the upstate New York region. He also served as an international adviser for Brill Publication’s  series on Chinese research on climate change. In November 0f 2012 Dr. Leibo appeared as a guest on Al Gore’s 24 Hours of Climate Reality: The Dirty Weather Report global webcast which attracted over 16 million viewers.

Dr. Leibo was recently elected to membership on the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations.  He is also an “Associate in Research” at the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University.

Earlier in life Leibo held a  great many jobs from shoe salesman and gas station attendant to Fuller Brush man and even spent almost two years at Stanford University interviewing people about their sex lives during the mid 1970s. In short, he brings to all his work, from teaching and writing to commentary, a very broad and diverse range of experiences to draw upon.

Professor Leibo is the author/and or editor/adviser for many academic and popular works, among them:

Adviser with Li Yang of the English language translation of Tsinghua University’s Annual Review of Low Carbon Development in China (2011-2012) in press Brill Publications

“The New Mongolia: From Gold Rush to Climate Change” Education About Asia.

“Asia & the Climate Crisis” Education about Asia Winter 2010/11 issue vol. 15, number 3)

“Can Historians Be Helpful in Addressing the Climate Crisis”
History News Network September 2008

East, And Southeast Asia 1997 to 2020 an annual from Stryker-Post (2019-20 edition available from Rowman & Littlefield

Transferring Technology to China: Prosper Giquel and the Self-Strengthening Movement. Berkeley, 1985

Journal of the Chinese Civil War by Prosper Giquel 1864. Hawaii, 1985

Writing as Li Bo, Professor Leibo has also written a series of historical novels called The Sino-American Tales which include the following:  

Tienkuo: The Heavenly Kingdom, an historical novel set during the Chinese Civil War of the 1860s. There is also a sequel to Tienkuo The Heavenly Kingdom called Beyond the Heavenly Kingdom which is set in the United States during the 1870s and focuses on the politics surrounding the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.  Both historical novels are available on Amazon as paperback, e-books and Amazon Audible books. Leibo is currently writing a third book in the series tentatively titled Identity. 

Individuals interested in inviting me to speak to your organization should contact me directly at leibos@sage.edu