 We are pleased to announce our plans for the 2010 workshop "Teaching Korean Popular Culture", and to extend this invitation to scholars of Korean Studies to participate in a forum on the research and study of Korean popular culture at US academic institutions. The proposed workshop will be held at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), during June 25-26, 2010. The two day event is organized and to be led by professors Kyung Hyun Kim (UC Irvine), Serk-Bae Suh (UC Irvine), and Youngmin Choe (USC). Over the past two decades, the field of Korean Studies has undergone dynamic developments, extending its reach into Korean TV dramas, films, music, tourism, youth culture and new technology, to name a few examples. Korean popular culture has thus emerged as vital ground in the invigoration of Korean Studies in the United States, as well as in situating it in the geopolitics of global cultural studies. These new directions in intellectual interest have presented challenges to scholars and teachers, such as the need to develop new analytical perspectives and pedagogical methods, within and beyond the boundaries of nation-based approaches. The Korean Studies Summer Workshop 2010 seeks to provide a forum that will promote transnational exchange and dialogue between scholars teaching and conducting research on Korean popular culture at institutions in the United States and in South Korea. The workshop will consist of two parts: (1) "Reading Korean Popular Culture" and (2) "Teaching Korean Popular Culture." Discussion on the first day will foreground critical topics and approaches in the study of Korean pop culture. For example, the inadequacy of singularly nation-bound or dichotomous national/transnational paradigms, and the identification of problems and approaches that emerge specifically from the altered regional conditions of contemporary cultural production and circulation. In a similar vein, we hope to foster an open exchange of ideas on teaching Korean popular culture and probe its implementation in the academic curriculum of Korean Studies at US academic institutions through a comparison with its application in South Korean universities. The workshop also seeks to promote collaboration between scholars, teachers, and graduate students engaged in Korean popular cultural studies on both sides of the Pacific. Since this is a workshop and not a conference, our primary goal is to promote opportunities for lively intellectual exchange rather than formal presentations on the following topics:
Meals, hotel accommodations, and travel expenses (for out-of-town-guests) will be remunerated by the organizing committee. We would appreciate confirmation of your attendance by no later than March 5, 2010. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact workshop director Kyung Hyun Kim (kyunghk@uci.edu), or coordinator Hyun Seon Park ( hyunsp@uci.edu). We look forward to hearing from you, and hope you will be able to attend. Thank you. Sincerely, Kyung Hyun Kim Associate Professor East Asian Lang & Lit Film & Media Studies UC Irvine |