Sarah Kovner

Assistant Professor of History and Asian Studies, University of Florida

Professor Kovner teaches and conducts research on international and transnational history, with a specialization on war and society.  Her new project is on Allied POWs in the Pacific War.  She is the author of Occupying Power: Sex Workers and Servicemen in Postwar Japan (Stanford University Press 2012), which reveals an important but underexplored aspect of the Japanese occupation and its effect on gender and society. It seeks to shift the terms of debate on a number of controversies, including Japan's history of forced sexual slavery, rape accusations against U.S. servicemen, opposition to U.S. overseas bases, and sexual trafficking.

Naoko Shibusawa

Associate Professor of History, Brown University

Professor Shibusawa is a 20th century U.S. cultural historian. She studies U.S.empire and political culture, as well as transnational Asian American history.  Her first book, America's Geisha Ally: Re-Imagining the Japanese Enemy (Harvard 2006), examines how Americans were able to accept the Japanese as valuable Cold War allies so quickly after a brutal and racialized war. Her current book project explores the orientalism in Cold War homophobia and seeks to understand why sexual practices became important to national security during this period.

*Advance readings will be assigned and audience participation strongly encouraged. Contact ealc@artsci.wustl.edu for readings.