Korean Studies

Book cover image of Digital Lives in the Global City (2020)

New writing: “High-Altitude Protests and Necropolitical Digits” (2020)

This was one of the quickest writings I’ve done, conceived and drafted almost entirely on one night in 2015. It’s a short, creative piece, packed with dates and other kinds of digits that have become a key part of my research on protest cultures. I wanted to tie these numerical digits to the idea of “digital lives,” making sense of protests that persist over time and hang precariously on the verge of death.

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Oct 23 in LA: Protesting Seoul: Resistance in Precarious Times

I’m giving a talk in LA on Wednesday, October 23 about protest cultures in Korea and the Korean diaspora, co-presented with Jennifer Chun on research we’ve been doing for a while. We plan to do a little more than a typical academic talk with multiple projectors and audiovisual materials. An event organized by GYOPO. Please do RSVP.

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New publication: “Shifting Geographies of Proximity” in Ethnographies of U.S. Empire

“Politically and theologically conservative Korean Protestantism — which constitutes the dominant mainstream and political leadership of Korean Christianity, and is especially prominent among immigrant Korean Americans in the United States — is inextricable from its Cold War collusion with religious and geopolitical-economic reaches of the American empire. This discussion of history — not as a bygone past but as an enduring present — gestures toward my contention that Korean evangelicals are producing Islamophobia as a geopolitical-religious and world orientation project. By aligning Korea with the “Free World” even as Korea reaches out to the developing world, world evangelical missions not only consolidate and reinforce existing affinities and alliances, but also engage in an ongoing calibration of distance and proximity in relation to the empire.”… more →

[Job] Korean History position, University of Washington

The University of Washington is seeking a Korean historian “who will be expected to participate in undergraduate and graduate teaching both in JSIS and in History, offering large survey courses, including a survey of modern Korean history, as well as more advanced courses; conduct independent research; and contribute to the University’s distinguished and diverse programs in undergraduate and graduate studies. Candidates should be able to contribute to the mission of both JSIS and History, and can take a leadership role in Korean Studies at the University of Washington.”

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[CFP] Stupendous Villainy in Korean Cinema, UC Berkeley

Interesting CFP on “stupendous villainy” in Korean cinema. “The continuing success of Korean films has garnered the interest of critics in the persistence of the popular genre form. Their appropriation of blockbuster aesthetics, reworking of narrative and genre conventions, as well as the treatment of diverse subject matters, have all received keen critical attention. This workshop focuses on a narrower element of Korean film’s popular appeal: the stupendous depiction of villainy. Through an examination of the strange depth of antiheroes and psychopaths, this workshop endeavors to elucidate an oft-neglected, yet impressive aesthetic achievement of recent popular Korean cinema.  The sophisticated technique of character development in creating the archetype of the villain not only highlights the broader range and depth of new trends in popular filmmaking, but also calls for new ways to conceptualize the relationship between filmic representation and the society at large.  The broad contour of the antagonist, ranging from the lure of transgression and a fear of the dreadful, will be of particular interest.”… more →