OSHER 119 - A Twentieth-Century Thai Life

We will explore moments from the life of a Thai woman born in 1908 who lived through all of the political and cultural change that shaped Thailand in the twentieth century. We will use elements of her own autobiographical reporting and crosscuts from the writing of historians and other scholars. We will explore early Thai feminism, World War II-era nationalism, the waxing and waning of national ideologies, her response to those, and how she worked to create a life with meaning. No prior knowledge of Thailand or Southeast Asia is required.