Join a wide range of students and scholars for this two-day in-person conference examining the lives and struggles of young people in Korea.
This public conference sees researchers and academics coming together to explore the ways in which the lives of Korean young people have been affected by societal changes. Political upheaval, the climate crisis, revolutions, and increasing social awareness have all had enormous impacts of their lives.
Organised by Korean Studies at the University of Edinburgh as part of our Academy of Korean Studies CORE project, this two-day event will be an opportunity for everyone to explore various fields and disciplines focused on young Koreans and the spaces they inhabit.
About the conference
The 20th century is widely considered to be an era of youth in which the teenager, tweenager and pre-teen were invented. International social changes; changing economies and governments; and industrial business complexes have transformed the landscapes in which these seemingly new categories of young people exist.
While the teenager did not necessarily arrive late in Korea, young people had already been through a series of conflicts, revolutions, colonisations and traumas – surely impacting their experience of youth culture and possibilities.
South Korean youth have been key agents of its democratisation and justice struggles. They are therefore deeply embedded in the processes of contemporary cultural and social formation in their country.
The conference brings together academics, practitioners and others interested in Korean youth and its culture. It provides opportunities to encounter and connect with researchers at a range of career stages, including PhD and graduate students, emerging and post-doctoral scholars, and established academics. The focus is on political, social, economic, environmental and cultural transformations both in Korea and across the globe in the present or near present day.
We intend this conference to be multi- and inter-disciplinary in every way. We want to explore the cutting edges of youth experience in 21st century Korea, navigating spaces and terrains such as:
- the workplaces and industries of the future
- landscapes of social and cultural practice
- social organisation
- political resistance and struggle
- environmental and ecological futures
- terrains of nationalist reconstruction, gender, identity and culture wars
Attendees will be able to present research, share academic interests, and strengthen ties with others. We hope the conference will be an opportunity for everyone to explore various fields and disciplines focused on young Koreans and the spaces they inhabit.
Programme
| Monday 19th June 2023 | |
| 10:00 – 11:00 | Playfair library, Old College – Opening session Welcoming remarks and Chair: Dr. Robert Winstanley-Chesters (University of Edinburgh)Opening Remarks: Prof. Peter Mathieson (Principal of the University of Edinburgh) H.E. Mr. Yeocheol Yoon (Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) Prof. Byung Woo Ahn (President of the Academy of Korean Studies) Dr. Youngmi Kim (University of Edinburgh and Director of the Scottish Centre for Korean Studies) |
| 11:00 – 12:30 | Panel 1 Playfair library, Old College – Plenary sessionProf. Olga Fedorenko (Seoul National University) – Idol Ads in the Seoul Metro: K-pop Fandom, Appropriation of Subway Space, and the Right to the City” Raphael Rashid (Seoul-based journalist, formerly of SOAS and Korea University in Korean Studies) – “Queer spaces in Seoul and their gentrification” |
| 12:30 – 13:30 | Lunch |
| 13:30 – 15:00 | Panel 2 Playfair Library, Old College – Editors/Publishers panel Chair: Prof. Natascha Gentz (University of Edinburgh) |
| 13:30 – 15:00 | Panel 3 Law School reading room (Old College) – Spaces of work and new forms of work Chair/Discussant Yoonai Han (LSE) – “How repeated unpredictability shapes inequality: short-term workers in Seoul” |
| 15:00 – 15:30 | conference moves to 50 George Square |
| 15:30 – 17:30 | Panel 4 50 George Square – Project Room – Young Koreans and new cultural forms/products Chair/Discussant Anna Elizabeth Faber (University of Auckland) – “Make them Eat Cake: Childhood Trauma and Loss of Identity Through Abject Consumption in Hansel and Gretel, Antique Bakery, and Silenced” |
| 15:30 – 17:30 | Panel 5 50 George Square – Screening Room – British Association of Korean Studies panel Chair/Discussant Prof Emeritus. James Grayson (University of Sheffield) |
| 17:30 – 18:30 | British Association for Korean Studies AGM – 50 George Square – Screening Room |
| 19:00 – 21:30 | Conference Dinner – Shinwari, 46, 52 Lady Lawson St, EH3 9DW |
| Tuesday 20th June | |
| 09:00 – 11:00 | Panel 6 50 George Square – Project Room – Constructing Space, Politics and Self Chair/Discussant Sugyeong Son (Seoul National University) – “A Significant Wave of ‘Love Yourself Just the Way You Are’ Movement among Young Female Individuals in South Korea” |
| 09:30 – 11:00 | Panel 7 50 George Square – Screening Room – Climate Change, Crisis, Resistance, Anxieties Chair/Discussant Heesun Hwang (Seoul National University) – “The old future: multispecies kinship and absence of youth in South Korean heritage seed community” |
| 11:00 – 11:30 | Break |
| 11:30 – 13:00 | Panel 8 50 George Square – Screening Room – Special panel “Putting the S into ESG in East Asia: Employment Standards in South Korean Corporations” Prof. Peter Matanle (University of Sheffield) |
| 11:30 – 13:00 | Panel 9 50 George Square – Project Room – Multiculturalism and youth Chair/Discussant Dr. Farrah Sheikh (SOAS/Keimyung University) “Young Korean Muslims and being Muslim in Korea” |
| 13:00 – 14:00 | Lunch |
| 14:00 – 16:00 | Panel 10 50 George Square – Screening Room – Korean, identity, sex and gender terrains Chair/Discussant Hye Min Oh (Ewha Womens University) – “The Epistemic Smothering of Korean Youth Feminists in a Time of Feminism Backlash” |
| 14:00 – 16:00 | Panel 11 50 George Square – Project Room – North Korean youth spaces Chair/Discussant Roman Husarski (Jagiellonian University) – “North Korean Young Guards. The Myth of Anti-Imperialist Youth in the DPRK film Boy Partisan (1951)” |
| 1600 – 16:30 | Closing remarks – 50 George Square – Project Room
Dr. Youngmi Kim (University of Edinburgh and Director of the Scottish Centre for Korean Studies) and Dr. Robert Winstanley-Chesters (University of Edinburgh) |
| Wednesday 21st June | |
| 10:30-12:00 | Post conference cultural excursion – National Museum of Scotland Guided tour of the National Museum of Scotland’s Korea and Asian collections Meet at Chancellors Court reception at 10am after breakfast |