Description

‘Politicizing Justice’ examines key debates concerning issues of redress and reparations for Japan’s war of aggression, colonial expansion and their Cold War aftermath. Through observing several critical sites of the inter- Asian and trans-Pacific redress efforts at the turn of the new century, I will explore their political and intellectual implications in the context of the global expansion of the human rights regime. The talk will also consider some of the possibilities for theorizing historical justice, violence, as well as the Cold War’s politics of knowledge over Asia and the Pacific.

Lisa Yoneyama received her B.A. in German Language Studies and M.A. in International Relations at Sophia University, Tokyo, and Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology at Stanford University, California. She has taught at UCSD since 1992 and taught Cultural Studies, U.S.-Japan Studies, Asian American Studies, and Critical Gender Studies. Her research interests center on the history and memory of war and colonialism, gender and militarism, and the cultural dimensions of transnationalism, neo-colonialism, and the Cold War and post-Cold War U.S. relations with Asia.