GLOBAL SPEAKING
Susan Southard presents keynote addresses, readings, lectures, and book talks on nuclear issues across the United States and abroad. Internationally, she has spoken before the United Nations and presented at the 27th United Nations Conference on Disarmament Issues in Hiroshima, the 6th Global Citizens Assembly for the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons in Nagasaki, the London Asia House, and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (England).
Southard has provided keynote addresses and lectures for the New York City annual commemorations of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings; the Chautauqua Institution (NY)–as part of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle; the Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site; and the Ruth Pauley Lecture Series (NC), among others. She has spoken at universities throughout the United States, including: Arizona State University, Florida International University, Indiana University, the University of Dayton School of Law, the University of Georgia, Wake Forest University, and Wilmington College. Southard also speaks to book clubs across the country, both in person and via Skype.
Lectures and book talks can be custom-designed. Nonfiction seminars on various writing topics are also available.
PAST LECTURE THEMES
Beneath the Mushroom Cloud: The Aftermath of Nuclear War
For much of the world, the 1945 atomic bombings of Japan represented an end to a long and costly global war. But for tens of thousands of survivors who barely escaped death beneath the mushroom clouds, their new lives as hibakusha (atomic bomb-affected people) had just begun. Using historic and contemporary photographs, Southard takes audiences on the astonishing and untold journey of post-nuclear survival. From Nagasaki 1945 to today, we hear the stories of hibakusha navigating an uncertain future with punishing injuries, acute and late-onset radiation-related illnesses, psychological trauma, and haunting fears that they would pass on genetic disorders to their children and grandchildren. Understanding the enduring impact of nuclear war expands how we perceive the atomic bombings of Japan—two of the most controversial wartime acts in history—and helps shape public discussion on current nuclear policies in the United States and across the world. Q and A to follow.
Nagasaki and Beyond: The Ethics of Collateral Damage
What is our responsibility to the civilians of enemy nations who die or are wounded by our military? Focusing on the experiences of the survivors of the 1945 Nagasaki atomic bombing, Southard explores many of the unknown consequences of this historic military action on the people beneath the mushroom cloud, including the nationalistic propaganda that obscured the suffering and death of Japanese civilians and non-combatants, and our nation’s 74-year response to the survivors’ suffering. The Nagasaki survivors’ experiences remind us of the impact of our military actions on civilians, our tendency to look away, and how we might reconsider our tolerance of and ethical responses to our military’s “collateral damage.”
Writing Nagasaki: Life After Nuclear War
Susan Southard spent twelve years reconstructing the days, months, and years after the bombing of Nagasaki. In this lecture, she reveals the rich and complex process of completing Nagasaki, researching and interviewing hibakusha (atomic bomb-affected people), atomic bomb historians, physicians, and specialists; translating interviews and original source documents, and researching the Pacific War, the making and delivery of the atomic bombs, the physics of a nuclear explosion, acute and long-term effects of radiation on the body, psychological trauma of nuclear war, and post-war rebuilding, activism, and how aging hibakusha look back on their lives split in two by nuclear war.
Writing Nagasaki also included challenging narrative considerations for telling such a huge story at a personal level and required close examination of historical documents to untangle the biases of most historians who have written about this controversial and polarizing topic. After publication, Nagasaki received widespread praise both in the United States and across the world, while personally, Southard received hundreds of emails and letters both from those who were deeply moved by the book and others who passionately believe that the survivors’ stories should not be told. Q and A to follow.
