'Why The Past Must be Preserved for the Future' and 'Staging Secrets: Documenting 'Comfort Women' of WWII in The Apology (2022)'

The Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Literary Studies presents talks by Mark Samuels Lasner, a curator at the University of Delaware Library and Margaret D. Stetz, Professor of Women's Studies at the University of Delaware

The cultural artifacts of the past—books, manuscripts, graphics, ephemera—held in archival collections are valued for multiple reasons, whether as items associated with historical information, intellectual content, sentiment, beauty, or curiosity. In this talk, Mark Samuels Lasner, a curator at the University of Delaware Library, Museums and Press and a longtime collector of Victorian literature and art, makes the case for using and retaining physical works, especially now, at a time when the digital world seems to have taken over.

Theatre plays an important role in dramatizing scenes from the past--those that have been well documented and those that, for a variety of reasons, have not. Margaret D. Stetz, Professor of Women's Studies at the University of Delaware, will discuss this in relation to Kyo Choi's play, The Apology, which in 2022 entered the ongoing international fight over the history of Asian women held in military sexual slavery during World War II.

This seminar is ideal for University of Essex students and researchers as well as members of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Literary Studies.

The seminar is a hybrid event, to be held on campus and online.  Participants who wish to join remotely can do so via the event Zoom link.