Elizabeth LaCouture

Elizabeth LaCouture is interested in a broad range of topics related to the history of women, gender and sexuality in China and East Asia. Her research combines the local histories of Chinese places with the transregional migrations of Chinese and global commodities to illuminate the individual experiences of everyday life beyond the totalizing narratives of the nation-state. Methodologically she expands traditional understandings of "the archive" to include non-written texts, such as visual and material culture and architecture.

Before joining HKU, Dr. LaCouture taught history and East Asian studies at Colby College in the Unites States and was a research fellow in the Academy of Korean Studies funded Korean Family in Comparative Perspective research group at the University of Illinois. Her research has been supported by the American Council of Learned Societies, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and Fulbright-Hays US Department of Education.