The Center for Korean Studies will host an international, interdisciplinary conference titled Tapestry of Modernity: Urban Cultural Landscapes of Colonial Korea at the Center for Korean Studies Auditorium on the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa campus February 16–17, 2012.
Within the framework of multiple modernities, the conference will explore different areas in society and culture that went through a metamorphosis as Korea reinvented itself as a modern state-nation during the 1920s and 1930s.
Scholars from the United States, Korea, Canada and Australia will address modern education, mass media, new women, popular culture and literary ventures. Sessions are free and open to the public.
The focus of the conference is on cultural modernity projects nurtured and cultivated in the urban setting of Korea during the decades when such modern transformation was most vigorously pursued and propagated and its achievements most visible and vibrant. Individual conference papers will explore various forms of selectivity, creativity, inventiveness, imaginary resourcefulness and visions of Koreans engaged in crafting their own brands of modernity.
Conference speakers
Keynote speaker is Gi-Wook Shin, the Tong Yang, Korea Foundation and Korea Stanford Alumni Chair of Korean Studies and senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University.
A historical-comparative and political sociologist, he is interested in social movements, nationalism, development and international relations. His numerous publications include the 2011 books Beyond North Korea: Future Challenges to South Korea’s Security and South Korean Social Movements: From Democracy to Civil Society.
University of Hawaiʻi presenters and their topics include
- Chizuko T. Allen, international research and fellowships coordinator for the School of Pacific and Asian Studies, on Ch’oe Nam-sŏn’s Modernity: Writings and Publication Projects Up to 1919
- Yung-Hee Kim, professor of Korean literature and director of the Center for Korean Studies, on Public Authentication of Woman’s Voice: Sinyŏja (New Women), the First Feminist Journal in Colonial Korea
- Judy Van Zile, professor emerita of dance, on Performing Modernity in Korea: The Dance of Ch’oe Sŭng-hŭi
The program schedule and presentation abstracts are available on the conference website.
