CFP: Korea and Vietnam in the 20th Century

Call for Papers

Korea and Vietnam in the 20th Century

Deadline July 31, 2014

The Center for Korean Studies of the University of Washington is planning a small conference on Korea and Vietnam in the 20th Century to be held in the Fall of 2015 at the University of Washington, Seattle. We are interested in papers in any field that involves intersection or comparison of Korean and Vietnamese experience in the twentieth century with an eye to using these intersections and comparisons to highlight similarities and differences between the two countries’ culture and historical experience. We anticipate publishing the best papers in a conference volume in our series Korea Studies at the Center for Korea Studies, University of Washington.

The disciplinary background of participants can be in either the humanities or social sciences. (We would welcome papers in history, anthropology, literature, and film at a minimum). We would ask that papers, so far as possible, to be based on authors’ own primary source research. We recognize, however, that few scholars will be able to do primary source research in or on both countries, so papers based on primary sources in one’s country of specialization that use secondary sources (or use literature in translation) to extend the analysis to the second country are quite acceptable. We hope to invite well-known scholars as discussants.

While we will consider papers that juxtapose Korean and Vietnamese institutions or historical events to good analytic effect, we are particularly interested in projects that:

  • investigate the way Koreans’ or Vietnamese’ awareness of each other have affected their perception of their own position in the world system, their trajectory of development, or their foreign relations
  • explore the intellectual consequences of Vietnamese’ interaction with French intellectual culture versus the Koreans’ interaction with Japanese intellectual culture
  • analyze the dynamics of division after World War II in the context of domestic and international politics
  • address questions of colonial modernity, colonization of consciousness, decolonization, and post-coloniality
  • address how domestic actors in the two countries memorialize or commemorate war dead, or address issues of connections between the Korean and Vietnam wars
  • address questions of regional subjectivity in relationship to political development and culture

The Center for Korea Studies at the University of Washington will provide transportation and three nights lodging for the duration of the conference.

Interested parties should send a paper proposal and abstract of 300-500 words outlining the sources the writer proposes to use and why they expect a Korea/Vietnam comparison will be productive for their project.

Proposals will receive full consideration if they are received by July 31, 2014.

Proposals should be sent to:

Korea/Vietnam Conference
Center for Korean Studies
Jackson School of International Studies
Box 353650
University of Washington
Seattle, WA 98195–3650
Email:uwcks@u.washington.edu

Participants will be informed by the end of August 2014 if their paper has been accepted.