Tea Talks: Teaching Histories of Wartime Sexual Violence in a Liberal Arts Curriculum

Dr. Liza Lawrence, assistant professor of history and Asian studies, will present the Tea Talk "Teaching Histories of Wartime Sexual Violence in a Liberal Arts Curriculum."

All Tea Talk lectures are held from 4:15 p.m.-5:15 p.m. Lectures are free and open to the public as well as the campus community. 

Abstract: When your students have limited prior academic or personal exposure to the histories and peoples of Asia, what is the best way to teach about “comfort women”? When many Americans are conditioned to see Asia as peculiar or even unpleasant, how does one combat stereotypes when teaching the difficult history of Asian men forcing mostly Asian women into brutal sexual servitude? 

I argue that the value of exposing American students to “comfort women” testimony is all too easily diminished if those students come away with messages about the otherness of Asian people, or conversely, the universality of suffering, and I evaluate a wider body of pedagogical resources, including scholarship, fiction, and documentary. 

Carefully framed, such sources clearly communicate yes, this happened, while inviting students to move beyond shock, repulsion, or judgment and toward the habits of inquiry at the center of the liberal arts curriculum, including those related to evaluating claims and pursuing the truth.

Now entering its 12th year, the Tea Talks lecture series features speakers on a range of topics. The series is sponsored by the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program.