Tessie P. Liu

Modern Europe; France; Gender

Office: 212 Harris & 124 Kresge
Phone: 847-491-3150 & 491-5871
E-mail: t-liunorthwestern.edu

Tessie P. Liu (PhD Michigan, 1987) is Associate Professor of History and Gender Studies. A social and cultural historian of modern France by training, Liu teaches a range of courses in European history, comparative women’s and gender history for the History Department. For the Gender Studies Program, Liu teaches courses on colonialism, transnationalism, race and sexuality as well as courses on feminist theory. She is a member of the Gender Studies Advisory Board and has served as Director of the Program. She is currently completing a monograph entitled “'Failure of Enlightenment, Not of Darkness': Race, Freedom and Citizenship Between the French and Haitian Revolutions" (anticipated for 2008). Her other publications include The Weaver’s Knot: The Contradictions of Family Solidarity and Class Conflict in Western France (1750 to 1914); several edited volumes: "Gendered Colonialisms in African History" (with Nancy R. Hunt and Jean H. Quataert); two special issues of Feminist Studies on “Second Wave Feminism in the United States” (with Nancy Hewitt) and “Women in the South Asian Diaspora” (with Judith Gardiner). In addition to continuing her critical exploration of multiculturalism within feminism, her most recent research and teaching interests include race and the politics of aesthetics and beauty. While chairing the Gender Studies Program, she also directed the second Edith Kreeger Wolf Conference held in April 2003 on “The Ends of Sexuality: Pleasure and Danger in the New Millennium.”

Curriculum Vitae