As a collaborative partnership between the Allegheny County Bar Association and the Asian Studies Center, the Comfort Women: The Legacy of Sexual Slavery in Asia conference will focus on the historical and legal aspects of sexual enslavement of women by the military in the years before and during World War II. Reaching beyond the actual historical events, the conference will explore the reasons for the long silence and how performance practices—protests, tribunals, theater, and memorial building projects are used to demand justice for those who suffered the state-sponsored acts of sexual violence both in Asia and here in America. The conference provides the framework for understanding how actions designed to bring about redress can shift from the legal aspects to its cultural and social possibilities.

The conference will open with a screening of Twenty Two (Guo Ke, 2017), a film about the last 22 Chinese comfort women. Following the film, Dr. Seung-hwan Shin will lead a Q&A session, and there will be a reception in the lobby of David Lawrence Hall.

For details on Saturday's activities, please see here.