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Friday Forum: Leslie Castro Woodhouse
October 29, 2021 @ 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm
Of Concubines and Crypto-Colonialism: Dara Rasami and the Making of Modern Thailand
Leslie Castro Woodhouse
Author, Editor, Independent Scholar
Founder of Origami Editorial
In this talk, Dr. Castro-Woodhouse will introduce her forthcoming book, Woman between Two Kingdoms: Dara Rasami and the Making of Modern Thailand (SEAP/Cornell University Press). This talk will explore how a northern Thai consort named Dara Rasami played a critical role in Siam’s effort to emulate a European-style “hierarchy of civilizations” in building a modern nation-state. The trajectory of Dara’s 24-year career as an ethnic outsider within the rarefied space of the Siamese Inner Palace illuminates both Siam’s crypto-colonial strategies to assimilate regional elites, and women’s importance to Thai political history.
Dr. Castro-Woodhouse is an independent scholar who earned both her MA in Asian Studies (2001) and PhD (2009) in History at UC Berkeley. Following a stint as managing editor of the journal Asia Pacific Perspectives from 2015-18, she founded Origami Editorial (www.origamieditorial.com) to help fellow scholars edit and polish their writing. She lives in the San Francisco Bay area.
This event is free and open to the public.
