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The second SoKEN conference agenda announced

Originally scheduled for April 2020, the 2nd SoKEN (Social Science Korean Studies European Network) Conference has moved online and takes place on 29 January 2021, courtesy of the Scottish Centre for Korean Studies at the University of Edinburgh. The conference is open to all, but pre-registration is required to get your personal Zoom link. Register here. Keynote speaker is Victor Cha, author of The Impossible State.

The 2nd Social Science Korean Studies European Network Conference (SoKEN)

Hosted by the Scottish Centre for Korean Studies, Department of Asian Studies, University of Edinburgh
Friday 29th January 2021 10:00 – 18:30

Keynote address: Professor Victor Cha, Georgetown University – Korea’s Future under a new U.S. administration
Friday 29th January 2021 16:00- 16:45

Time Presenter Affiliation Topic
Chair: Antti Leppänen, Researcher at the University of Turku
10:00 -12:00 Virginie Grzelczyk Reader
Aston University
Neither This Nor That: Understanding North Korea via Role Theory
Eun-Jung Lee Professor Free University Berlin German Capacity-Building Initiatives for North Korea – contribution of civil society for peace building?
Mike Prentice Lecturer
University of Sheffield
Low Status in High Places: Korean Corporate Hierarchy Revisited
Seo-Young Cho Research prof
Free University Berlin
On Inclusive Growth
– Millennials and Entrepreneurs in South Korea
Matteo Fumagalli Senior Lecturer
University of St. Andrews
Liminal diasporism and generational change among the Koryo saram in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
Chair: Daniela Claus-Kim, Researcher at Free University of Berlin
12:00 -14:00 Sangpil Jin Post-Doctoral Fellow University of Edinburgh Korean neutralization and the equation of balance of power in East Asia
Robert Winstanley-Chesters Lecturer, Bath Spa University and University of Leeds Rematerializing the Political Past: The Annual Schoolchildren’s March and North Korean Invented Traditions
Seungyoon Han PhD Candidate University of Essex The Effects of Changes in U.S.-China Relations on South Korean Foreign Policy
Hyesook Yang PhD candidate
SOAS
Utopia, Nostalgia, and Escapism: Art in South Korea during the Korean War, 1950-1953
Jinah Kwon Lecturer
Korea University
A Land of Canaan or Another Inferno?: North Korean Migrant Discontent in Neoliberal South Korean Society
Kyounghee Cho Assistant Professor Pusan National University The dilemma of Korean digital society: to guarantee freedom of expression or regulate social confliction?
Chair: Antonio Fiori, Associate Professor at the University of Bologna
14:00 -16:00 Jong-Chol An Assistant Professor
Ca’ Foscari University of Venezia
Who Owns the Crown Lands of Korea? Lands and Contested Memory of Imperial Korea
Sarah A Son Lecturer
University of Sheffield
Geospatial Mapping in North Korean Human Rights Monitoring: Ways of Seeing Beyond the Divide
Antonio Fiori / Marco Milani Associate Professors
University of Bologna
Soft power or hard threat? South Korean cultural production and inter-Korean relations
Neil Chisholm Visiting Scholar
Sungkyunkwan University
Prosecutorial independence in comparative perspective: South Korea as a window onto the continental and Anglo-American styles
Youngmi Kim Senior Lecturer
University of Edinburgh
Misogyny and feminist movement in Korea
Chair: Youngmi Kim, Senior Lecturer at the University of Edinburgh
16:00 -16:45 Victor Cha Professor
Georgetown University
Keynote address: Korea’s Future under a new U.S. administration (details below)
Chair: Jong-Chol An, Assistant professor at Ca’ Foscari University of Venezia
17:00 -18:30 Ji-Eun Ahn PhD candidate
University of Edinburgh
Repertoires and Cycles of Protest: the Candlelight Vigils in South Korea
Seokdong Kim Senior Researcher
Seoul National University
Post-developmental States’ Increasing Inequality:
The Impacts of Weak Welfare Regimes and Institutional Inefficiencies
Victoria Ten Independent Scholar Contemporary Mythology of North and South Korea: Common Background or Common Destination?
Tong Zhou PhD candidate
University of Edinburgh
Why China changes its foreign policy under Xi’s era
Ye-Jin Shin PhD candidate
University of Edinburgh
Language Ideology and Inequality in Education Policy: Language Ideology and beliefs amongst Expatriate North Koreans Living in South Korea
Jennifer Miller PhD student
University of Edinburgh
“Spiritual revolution” in search of development: state interventions in cultural production in South Korea’s rural development programme, the New Village Movement

Keynote address: Korea’s Future under a new U.S. administration

Professor Victor Cha – 4pm-5pm

Speaker biography

Victor ChaVictor Cha holds the D.S. Song-KF Professorship in Government and International Affairs and serves as vice dean for faculty and graduate affairs in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. In 2009, he was also named as Senior Adviser for Asia and Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. He left the White House in 2007 after serving since 2004 as Director for Asian Affairs at the National Security Council. At the White House, he was responsible primarily for Japan, the Korean peninsula, Australia/New Zealand and Pacific Island nation affairs.

Dr. Cha was also the Deputy Head of Delegation for the United States at the Six Party Talks in Beijing. He is the author of five books, including Alignment Despite Antagonism: The United States-Korea-Japan Security Triangle and The Impossible State: North Korea, Past and Future and Powerplay: Origins of the American Alliance System in Asia. In 2018, he joined NBC and MSNBC as a News Contributor. He holds a B.A., an M.I.A., and a Ph.D. from Columbia University, as well as an M.A. from Oxford University.

Abstract

As a new administration comes into place in Washington, D.C. it faces challenges not just at home but on the Korean peninsula. Some of these challenges are familiar while others are new. How will the Biden presidency deal with North Korea? How will it repair alliance relations with South Korea? And how does Korea fit into the broader strategic competition underway between the United States and China in East Asia?

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