The Power of Fiction to Unlock History: New Teaching Unit Brings Sri Lanka’s Civil War into the Classroom
Can a novel teach history in ways textbooks cannot? That question is at the heart of a new curriculum unit developed by Lauren Collins, assistant teaching professor and director of the undergraduate Asian Studies program in CU Boulder’s Center for Asian Studies, recently published by the American Institute for Sri Lankan Studies.
The unit, , uses V. V. Ganeshananthan’s award-winning novel as a gateway to understanding the origins, complexities, and human consequences of Sri Lanka’s civil war. Set in 1980s Jaffna, Brotherless Nightfollows Sashi, a young Tamil woman and aspiring doctor whose life is transformed by the conflict. Through her perspective, students encounter questions of political resistance, moral ambiguity, and survival while exploring how war reshapes families, education, personal aspirations, and everyday life.
Designed for high school and college classrooms, the unit combines literary analysis with historical inquiry. Six thematic “deep dives” introduce students to the historical events, political movements, and key figures that shaped the conflict, helping them connect fiction to historical reality. The curriculum encourages close reading, critical thinking, and empathy while demonstrating how literature can open conversations about difficult histories with nuance and care.
Collins will bring this approach into the classroom this fall, offering Brotherless Nightas a reading option in her upper-division seminar, Politics of Memory.
The unit reflects the Center for Asian Studies' broader commitment to public and community-engaged scholarship that bridges university research and K–12 teaching. CAS is home to two long-running teacher professional-development programs — the South, Southeast, and West Asia Outreach Program (SSEWA)and the Program for Teaching East Asia (TEA)— that bring the study of Asia into classrooms across Colorado and the nation.