News
English Professor Priscilla Sears gave an emotional talk about her experiences in the war-torn regions of Bosnia and Croatia, and also emphasized the need for women to help bring about peace to an audience of 20 women yesterday in the Women's Resource Center.
Sears, whose speaking style intertwined vignettes and historical facts, described the Bosnian countryside as "breathtaking," although the civil war had exterminated so much of its life that it "didn't seem real."
The country had become a "garden of landmines," she said.
Sears also read a short story she had written, "Rumours of Angels," which detailed the trip into Bosnia -- how the truck she rode in had to keep on the narrow road for fear of landmines, how the hotel she stayed in had recently been used as a "torture center" and how the guards at the Bosnian border had told her, "Welcome to Hell."
Her experiences in Bosnia obviously had a profound impact on Sears, and at one point while telling an especially tragic story of a playground that had been hit by a mortar, Sears broke into tears and had to pause.
Painful memories also moved members of the audience to tears as Sears related other atrocities of the war and criticized America and Americans for lack of involvement.
In addition, Sears talked about the need for a Dartmouth Women's Studies program in a place where women's rights are truly suppressed, such as Kenya or China.
