Tag Archive for AKS

NUS workshop in June 2012 : “The urban ecology of religion: growth and redevelopment in Seoul”

02/13/2012 Research No comments

I’ve been invited to attend a work­shop on “Doing Asian Cities: The MPI-ARI-TISS-AKS-Shanghai Urban Aspirations Project” (5−6 June 2012, Singapore) as part of the MPI/AKS project on urban aspi­ra­tions. It’s a chance to meet with other researchers work­ing on the Asian megac­i­ties project in Mumbai, Shangai, Singapore, and Seoul. Just sub­mit­ted the fol­low­ing abstract:

The urban ecol­ogy of reli­gion: growth and rede­vel­op­ment in Seoul

With some of the largest and most spec­tac­u­lar megachurches in the world located in the City of Seoul, it is easy to find impres­sive the mate­r­ial pros­per­ity and polit­i­cal power asso­ci­ated with con­tem­po­rary Protestantism in South Korea. It is also easy to over­look the fact that in con­trast, nearly eighty per­cent of churches in Korea are quite small, with only fifty to two hun­dred mem­bers in their con­gre­ga­tion. There is much the­o­log­i­cal reflec­tion and polit­i­cal cri­tiques con­cern­ing the grow­ing gap between the rich and poor, cor­po­rate megachurches and vul­ner­a­ble microchurches. This paper addresses the pol­i­tics of scale and urban reli­gion as they relate to aspi­ra­tions for — and against — growth and (re)development in Seoul. In par­tic­u­lar, I will dis­cuss crit­i­cal ethno­graphic meth­ods includ­ing some new ideas for research­ing reli­gion (e.g. “cir­cle the church”) in the city.

Photo

CFP: “Political Popular” Conference, UC Irvine

01/22/2012 CFP No comments

Call for Papers
‘Political Popular: Intersection of Democracy and Popular/Public Culture in South Korea’ Conference
University of California, Irvine
September 20 – 22, 2012

Proposals may address (but are not lim­ited to) the fol­low­ing topics:

  • Critical analy­sis of Korean pop­u­lar cul­ture rang­ing from music, the­ater, film, tele­vi­sion, man­hwa, etc. Post-1980s lit­er­a­ture and poetry beyond ‘autonomous lit­er­a­ture’ (sunsu munhak 순수문학) vs ‘engaged lit­er­a­ture’ (ch’amyô munhak 참여문학)
  • Aesthetic nego­ti­a­tions in min­jung visual cul­ture and “post-minjung” art production
  • Protest cul­ture (both on-line and off-line)
  • New polit­i­cal media such as SNS activism, Nakkomsu, and inter­net blogging
  • Cinema, music, tele­vi­sion at the age of block­buster, super-talent agency, and neoliberalism
  • New youth cul­ture, con­sumerism, and urban space

Held con­cur­rently with a film series that high­light both fic­tion and doc­u­men­tary inde­pen­dent pro­duc­tion in South Korea and an art exhi­bi­tion that show­cases the visual cul­ture of South Korea’s democ­ra­ti­za­tion over the past three decades (1980s to the first decade of the 2000s), we invite pro­pos­als for unpub­lished, orig­i­nal indi­vid­ual papers (pre-constituted pan­els may also be given con­sid­er­a­tion). All pre­sen­ters of selected papers will have their travel, hotel, and meal expenses remu­ner­ated by the orga­niz­ing com­mit­tee. A brief bio and a 500-word abstract should be sub­mit­ted elec­tron­i­cally to Kyung Hyun Kim (kyunghk@​uci.​edu) no later than April 15, 2012. Conference will be held on September 20 – 22, 2012 at UC Irvine cam­pus. This event is co-sponsored by Academy of Korean Studies.

PhD Fellowship Opportunity in “Urban Aspirations in Seoul,” MPI Germany

11/28/2011 FYI, Research No comments

This is an announce­ment for 3 years of PhD fund­ing for some­one to work with Peter van der Veer on the Urban Aspirations project that I’m involved with. Feel free to ask me ques­tions! Deadline is December 31, 2011.

The Max-Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Department of Religious Diversity in Goettingen is invit­ing appli­ca­tions for one Ph.D. Fellowship in a col­lab­o­ra­tive, inter­na­tional research project.

Urban Aspirations in Seoul: Religion and Megacities in Comparative Studies (The Seoul Project)

Please visit the fol­low­ing link for the research project descrip­tion: http://​www​.mmg​.mpg​.de/​r​e​s​e​a​r​c​h​/​a​l​l​-​p​r​o​j​e​c​t​s​/​c​o​m​p​a​r​a​t​i​v​e​-​s​t​u​d​y​-​o​f​-​u​r​b​a​n​-​a​s​p​i​r​a​t​i​o​n​s​-​i​n​-​m​e​g​a​-​c​i​t​i​e​s​/​u​r​b​a​n​-​a​s​p​i​r​a​t​i​o​n​s​-​i​n​-​s​e​o​u​l​-​r​e​l​i​g​i​o​n​-​a​n​d​-​m​e​g​a​c​i​t​i​e​s​-​i​n​-​c​o​m​p​a​r​a​t​i​v​e​-​s​t​u​d​i​es/

With gen­er­ous sup­port from the Academy of Korean Studies (Korean Studies Promotion Service), the fel­low­ship pro­vides a stipend and research fund­ing for three years start­ing in February of 2012, includ­ing one year of ethno­graphic field research in Seoul, South Korea. The fel­low­ship may be extended to a fourth year.

Qualified can­di­dates must hold an MA in anthro­pol­ogy or a related dis­ci­pline. The fel­low will enroll in an appro­pri­ate PhD pro­gram at Utrecht University under the super­vi­sion of Professor Peter van der Veer while work­ing with col­leagues at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Goettingen, Germany. Fluency in Korean and English is expected.

Applications should include a cover let­ter, a brief per­sonal state­ment, a pro­posed research state­ment of no more than three single-spaced pages, a Curriculum Vitae and a copy of their MA cer­tifi­cate or equiv­a­lent. Fellowship will be deter­mined accord­ing to Max Planck Institute regulations.

Following its com­mit­ment to an equal oppor­tu­ni­ties employ­ment pol­icy, the Max Planck Society also espe­cially encour­ages per­sons with a dis­abil­ity to sub­mit their applications.

Deadline for appli­ca­tions: Dec. 31, 2011

Applications should be sent in elec­tronic form to: Jie Zhang, and for fur­ther infor­ma­tion please email Dr. Jin-heon Jung

Urban Aspirations in Seoul: Religion and Megacities in Comparative Studies

09/22/2011 Research No comments

Excellent news! I just found out that a col­lab­o­ra­tive research project that I’m involved with, “Urban Aspirations in Seoul: Religion and Megacities in Comparative Studies,” has been awarded a 5-year US$1.25 mil­lion grant by the Academy of Korean Studies (AKS). The project is spear­headed by the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity in Germany, and con­ceived as part of a larger study of urban aspi­ra­tions (co-directors: Peter van der Veer and Arjun Appadurai) that com­pares four Asian post­colo­nial megac­i­ties — Mumbai, Singapore, Shanghai, and now Seoul.

From what we’ve dis­cussed in the process of devel­op­ing this project pro­posal, it looks like the grant will fund research trips, col­lab­o­ra­tive meet­ings, con­fer­ences, and pub­li­ca­tions to fos­ter ethno­graphic and com­par­a­tive research orga­nized around these three themes: 1) Urban geog­ra­phy of reli­gion; 2) Urban life, spritual life; and 3) Multiple aspirations.

I’ll be in great com­pany, for sure:

  • Peter VAN DER VEER (Max Planck Institute), a renowned anthro­pol­o­gist of reli­gion and nationalism
  • Jin-heon JUNG (Max Planck Institute), cul­tural anthro­pol­o­gist of North Korean migra­tion and South Korean Protestantism
  • Nicholas HARKNESS (Harvard University), lin­guis­tic anthro­pol­o­gist and ethno­g­ra­pher of Korean Christianity
  • SONG Do-young (Hanyang University), cul­tural anthro­pol­o­gist of the city, with exper­tise in North Africa, Islam, and cul­tural geog­ra­phy of Seoul
  • KIM Hyun Mee (Yonsei University), cul­tural anthro­pol­o­gist of gen­der and migra­tion, mar­riage and religion
  • And me, the lone geo­g­ra­pher with inter­ests in cul­tural pol­i­tics of reli­gion, dif­fer­ence, and mobility

I’m incred­i­bly hon­oured and excited to be part of this amaz­ing inter­na­tional col­lab­o­ra­tion, and look for­ward to shar­ing more updates and devel­op­ments here.

AKS Thesis — Research Grant

07/18/2011 FYI No comments

Note the dead­line is com­ing up soon on August 1, 2011. This sounds a lot like the other AKS grant I posted a cou­ple of weeks ago, but there are some dif­fer­ences — dead­line, the monthly stipend amount, and also the focus on grad­u­ate stu­dents. It could be the same grant. Please direct all inquiries to AKS.

AKS Thesis — Research Grant

The Academy of Korean Studies invites stu­dents major­ing in Korean stud­ies to apply for the new AKS Thesis and Research Grant program.

The pro­gram pro­vides grad­u­ate stu­dents prepar­ing a the­sis in Korean stud­ies an oppor­tu­nity to do research in Korea. Grant awards include a monthly stipend of 900,000 won; round-trip air-fare; oppor­tu­ni­ties to take major classes and Korean lan­guage instruc­tion at the AKS; and access to AKS facil­i­ties, includ­ing the library.

Grants will be awarded for a six-month period, September 1, 2011, to February 28, 2012. Eligibility is lim­ited to grad­u­ate stu­dents spe­cial­iz­ing in Korean stud­ies at an over­seas uni­ver­sity and those who have fin­ished their course­work. The grants are not avail­able to cit­i­zens of Korea.

Applications must include an appli­ca­tion form (which can be down­loaded from the AKS Web site); orig­i­nal copy of cer­tifi­cate of enroll­ment or cer­tifi­cate of course­work com­ple­tion; orig­i­nal copy of offi­cial tran­scripts of under­grad­u­ate and grad­u­ate stud­ies; a study plan (five double-spaced pages); a two-page per­sonal state­ment; a let­ter of rec­om­men­da­tion (from advi­sor or dean); Korean (S-TOPIK) and English (TOEFL, IELTS, TEPS) lan­guage pro­fi­ciency test tran­script, if avail­able; and birth cer­tifi­cate or copy of passport.

Applications must be sub­mit­ted no later than August 1, 2011, and must be sub­mit­ted on line (gradaks@​aks.​ac.​kr). Successful can­di­dates will be noti­fied by August 13, 2011, and are expected to arrive at the AKS before August 31.

For fur­ther infor­ma­tion, con­tact Jaeseok Lee: Tel. +82 – 31-709‑8111 (ext 212, 214), +82 – 31-708‑5310; fax: +82 – 31-709‑9946; e-mail gradaks@​aks.​ac.​kr; Web site http://​www​.aks​.ac​.kr.

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