This speaker series explores the layers of Korean identity in the twenty-first century. Select scholars will illustrate significance of historical events such as Japanese colonization, peninsular division, occupation, fratricidal war, and the different paths to modernity in the North and the South, in conjunction to the migration of Koreans to Japan, Russia, China, the US. Just as important, more recent issues of migration to Canada, as well as transnational adoption, civilizing missions, and the future of ‘identities’ inside and outside of Korea will be topics of lively discussion.

Lectures in the Series

Venues to Heaven’ in a Heartless World: Colleges and Churches in South Korea in the 1950s
Dong-choon Kim, Sung Kong Hoe University, Seoul
Wednesday, 22 October 2014 | 3pm to 4:30pm | Room 519, Fifth Floor, Kaneff Tower | York University

The Rise and Fall of Class in South Korea
Hagen Koo, University of Hawai’i at Manoa
Tuesday, 11 November 2014 | 3pm to 4:30pm | Room 519, Fifth Floor, Kaneff Tower | York University

How Pink Turned Red: Queer Bodies and Postsecular Geopolitics in South Korea
Ju Hui Judy Han, University of Toronto, Scarborough
Wednesday, 25 February 2015 | 3pm to 4:30pm | Room 280A, Second Floor, York Lanes | York University

Transnational Adoption and (Im)Possible Lives
Eleana J. Kim, University of California, Irvine
Wednesday, 8 April 2015 | Room 626, Sixth Floor, Kaneff Tower | York University

 

The series is generously supported by The Korea Foundation, the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies, the Office of the Vice-President, Research & Innovation and the York Cetnre for Asian Research. It is organized by Professor Janice C.H. Kim (Department of History).