I’m giving a talk on queer & evangelical geopolitics next week in Seoul. It’s my first time giving a public academic-y talk in Korean (gulp) and also the first time giving a talk at… a church! (It’s the progressive Hyanglin Church). I must admit I’m a bit nervous about presenting alongside the prolific religious historian and esteemed critic, Kim Jin-ho, whose talk will be about evangelical homophobic alliance.
The event is organized by the TransChrist research group (critical researchers at the intersection of queer and religious studies), The Christian Institute for the 3rd Era (progressive Christian theologians and scholars), and Gilmok (progressive Christian network), and co-sponsored by the feminist Network for Glocal Activism (NGA) and Korean Society of Law and Policy on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI, a group of human rights attorneys and activist researchers). The 2016 Korea Queer Festival has also co-sponsored the event.
My talk is based on the article published last year in Munhwa/Kwahak (in Korean) on queer geopolitics from the vantage points of the diaspora with attention to minority politics. I’ll be talking about a bit of this and a bit of that, including queer activism and religious homophobia in the immigrant Korean American community in California in the 1990s. I look forward to seeing many familiar faces!
