Taylor, Sandra C. 1936-

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TAYLOR, Sandra C. 1936-

PERSONAL: Born July 31, 1936, in Sacramento, CA; daughter of Ruel J. (an educational planner) and Carol W. (a teacher; maiden name, Clark) Taylor; married Russell Wilhelmsen (a mathematician), June 5, 1981. Ethnicity: "White." Education: Stanford University, B.A., 1958; University of Denver, teaching certificate, 1962; University of Colorado, M.A., 1963, Ph.D., 1966. Politics: Democrat. Religion: Episcopalian. Hobbies and other interests: Hiking, reading, gardening.

ADDRESSES: Home—1675 East 600 S., Teasdale, UT 84773. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Social studies teacher at public schools in Denver, CO, 1964; University of Colorado, Boulder, instructor in history, 1963-66; University of Utah, Salt Lake City, assistant professor, 1966-72, associate professor, 1972-83, professor of history, 1983-2001, university professor, 1994-95, professor emeritus, 2001—, interim director of Asian studies, 1992-95, president of university senate, 1992-93. University of Hawaii—Hilo, visiting assistant professor, 1972-73. Japanese American Citizen's League, advisor and lecturer, 1983-92; guest on radio and television programs; public speaker.

MEMBER: Society of Historians of American Foreign Relations (member of board of editors, 1986-90; chair, 1990), Association for Asian Studies, American Historical Association (president of Pacific Coast branch, 2001), Organization of American Historians, Peace History Association (member of council, 1981—), Phi Beta Kappa.

AWARDS, HONORS: Fulbright grants for India, 1968, and for Moscow State University, 2001; grant from Central Intelligence Agency, 1984; grant from Lyndon Baines Johnson Foundation, 1985-86; Gustavus Myers Award, Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights, 1987, for Japanese Americans: From Relocation to Redress; Dee grant for Vietnam, 1992.

WRITINGS:

Advocate of Understanding: Sidney L. Gulick and the Search for Peace with Japan, Kent State University Press (Kent, OH), 1984.

(Editor, with Roger Daniels and Harry Kitano, and contributor) Japanese Americans: From Relocation to Redress, University of Utah Press (Salt Lake City, UT), 1985, revised edition, University of Washington Press (Seattle, WA), 1991.

Jewel of the Desert: Japanese American Internment at Topaz, University of California Press (Berkeley, CA), 1993.

Vietnamese Women at War: Fighting for Ho Chi Minh and the Revolution, University Press of Kansas (Lawrence, KS), 1999.

Contributor to books, including The Vietnam War as History, edited by J. Errington and B. J. E. McKerricher, Praeger (New York, NY), 1986; A Quest for Ethics in Diplomacy, edited by Thomas B. Lee, Franklin College Press (Franklin, IN), 1989; and Presidents and the Vietnam War, edited by David Anderson, University Press of Kansas (Lawrence, KS), 1993. Contributor to journals, including Utah Historical Quarterly. Member of board of editors, Pacific Historical Review, 1980-86, Peace and Change, 1984-86, 1989-95, and Diplomatic History, 1986-89.

SIDELIGHTS: Sandra C. Taylor once told CA: "Advocate of Understanding: Sidney L. Gulick and the Search for Peace with Japan is the biography of a missionary to Japan who later worked in the United States to better American relations with Japan. Although he failed and the two countries went to war, his life is a testimony to the forces for understanding and cooperation that triumphed after the war.

"I am broadly interested in the interaction between Asians and Americans, with specific reference to the Vietnam War and the relocation of Japanese-Americans in the inter-mountain West. Japanese-Americans are a more immediate subject of interest, due to my previous research and my current residence in Utah. I am a part of the Vietnam generation, yet I did not feel I really knew anything about it. I have now written several general articles about the war and am engaged in long-term research on it."

Later Taylor added: "I found Sidney Gulick to be a fascinating man. The Japanese Americans intrigued me because I was so horrified by what happened to them. I interviewed many Japanese and Vietnamese, and through that process was drawn by their lives.

"As a professional historian, my goal was to understand my subjects, to interpret their lives, and to analyze their impact upon their times. I am influenced in understanding, in my last few works, how they were victims and yet, in their own eyes, heroes and heroines. I write at a computer with notes, photocopies, and books around me, and I write as many drafts as possible, given the need eventually to bring the work to completion. I hope to continue these skills as I turn to fiction."