Vortragsreihe der Koreanistik

Frontlines of Social Science Research on Korea

Dark Heritage in Korea-Japan Relations
Wednesday February 8, 2023, 18:00 c.t.
Wilhelmstraße 133, Room 30

Abstract
This talk introduces the ongoing tension associated with history problems in Japan-Korea relations by bringing the Japanese dark heritage into focus. The dissonant nature of dark cultural heritage has gained greater attention since the late 1990s in Japan and around the world, though scholarship has been largely limited to the European context. While examining the Japanese making of dark heritage, the talk will first reconstruct the process by which specific sites of past violence are transformed into war heritage in Japan. Second, it will explore the political and social roles of dark heritage between Japan and Korea. These two themes will be demonstrated through an examination of civic activities to conserve remains of underground facilities built during World War II in Nagano and Osaka, Japan.

Bio
Dr. Han, Jung-Sun is a professor at the College of International Studies, Korea University. Majoring in modern and contemporary Japanese history, Han has worked on the interwar and wartime Japanese political thoughts and the Japan-Korea relationship. Han’s books include An Imperial Path to Modernity: Yoshino Sakuzo and a New Liberal Order in East Asia, 1905-1937 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2013) and Drawing an Empire: Japanese Cartoon Journalism and Colonization of Korea (일본, 만화로 제국을 그리다, co-authored, 서울: 일조각, 2006). The latter book, Drawing an Empire, has won the best academic book prize in Korea and has been translated into Japanese (漫畵に 描かれた日本帝國, 東京: 明石書店, 2010). Most recently, Han has co-edited Risk Management in East Asia: Systems and Frontier Issues (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2021) with colleagues in Fudan and Kobe Universities. Currently, Han is revising a book-length manuscript on Japanese civic activities to conserve dark heritage for publication.

Frontlines of Social Science Research on Korea

How Can I Be Fully Human Inside Your Brain?:
Anti-Asian Racism from a  Neuropolitical Perspective
Wednesday January 18, 2023, 18:00 c.t.
Wilhelmstraße 133, Room 30

Abstract
What are the neurocognitive mechanisms of racism, dehumanization and polarization? Why should we understand what is happening in the brain of a racist? I argue that current Left and liberal persuasive strategies of anti-racism might fail to reach those who dehumanize us the most, in part because they are not based on an accurate understanding of how and why our social brains dehumanize, as well as how our brains can actually learn to re-humanize and include others. I outline a new neuropolitical language and rhetoric to address our polarized societies, with a special focus on anti-Asian racism that Asian diaspora communities face in Europe and beyond – trying to describe a novel vision for humanization from the brain cell up. The talk offers both a theoretical neuropolitical model of dehumanization, as well as concrete strategies for re-humanization for educators, activists, and people in Asian diaspora communities.

Bio
Dr. Liya Yu is a German Chinese political philosopher, novelist and performance artist. She is the author of Vulnerable Minds: The Neuropolitics of Divided Societies (ColumbiaUP, 2022) and co-editor of the Routledge Handbook on Neuropolitics (2024). She was trained as a political scientist at University of Cambridge (B.A.) and Columbia University (M.Phil, Ph.D.). During the Covid pandemic, Dr. Yu was a frequent contributor to debates about anti-Asian racism in Germany. From 2021-2022 she was an artist-in-residence at Taipei’s Treasure Hill Artist Village. She is currently a visiting research fellow at National Taiwan University’s Political Science Department, National Chengchi University’s International College of Innovation, and Ludwig-Maximilians Universität Münchens Institute of Medical Psychology.

Frontlines of Social Science Research on Korea

Antifeminist Political Strategies of Two Political Parties
Wednesday January 11, 2023, 18:00 c.t.
Wilhelmstraße 133, Room 30

Abstract
Der Vortrag behandelt die antifeministischen politischen Strategien der 국민의힘in Korea und der AfD in Deutschland. Die AfD und die 국민의힘nutzen den Antifeminismus als strategisches Mittel, um die Unterstützungskräfte für ihre Parteien zu erweitern und sich dadurch einen Vorteil bei den Wahlen zu verschaffen. Vor der Präsidentschaftswahl im März 2022 legte die 국민의힘“gender conflict” als politische Agenda fest und mobilisierte den Antifeminismus als politische Strategie, um besonders die Stimmen männlicher Wähler unter den 20- und 30-Jährigen für sich zu gewinnen. Der Antifeminismus der 국민의힘behauptet, dass Feminismus die Ursache von “gender conflict” und eine falsche Ideologie sei, die Männer diskriminiert. In ihren Wahlversprechen behauptet die 국민의힘, dass es in Korea keine strukturelle Geschlechterdiskriminierung gebe, und rechtfertigt damit die Abschaffung der Frauenquote und des Frauenministeriums sowie die Bewertung von Sexualverbrechen als Einzelthemen. Die AfD nutzte den Antifeminismus, um Rechte und Rechtsextreme zu mobilisieren, die befürchten, ihre Interessen aufgrund sozioökonomischer Veränderungen zu verlieren. Der Antifeminismus der AfD verbindet den Familialismus und Rassismus miteinander, indem er Themen wie Familie, Ethnizität, Kultur, Geschlecht und Migration auf komplexe Weise verknüpft. Der Antifeminismus wird mit dem Familialismus verbunden und fordert eine Rückkehr zum traditionellen Familienbild, zur Familienordnung und Familienwerten und pocht auf eine Retraditionalisierung der Familie, um aus der Familienkrise herauszukommen. Familistischer Antifeminismus wird mit Rassismus verbunden, um die nationale kulturelle Identität Deutschlands zu verteidigen, die durch die rasante Zunahme von Flüchtlingen und Migranten, multikulturelle Politik und demografische Veränderungen bedroht sei.

Bio
Bok-Hee Chun (PhD, Marburg University) is the current director of the Korean Institute for Women & Politics and has taught political science at Korea Aerospace University from 2002 to 2021. She has authored a book on social Darwinism and the viewpoint of the state (in Korean: 사회진화론과 국가사상) as well as co-authored books in Korean about gender politics, family policy in the age of low fertility, and multiculturalism and feminism. She has also published various Korean papers on gender issues and feminism in German politics and history.

Frontlines of Social Science Research on Korea

The Politics of Regulating History Denial: Current Discourse in Korea on Law against the Distortion of History.
Wednesday December 14, 2022, 18:00 c.t
Wilhelmstraße 133, Room 30

Abstract
Provoked by the ludicrous statements made by far right politicians that ridiculed and distorted Gwangju Uprising, voices asking for juridical punishment became prominent within civil society, which led to the enactment of legal provisions to enable the punishment of history denial in Korea. The objective of today's presentation is to analyze the politics of using law as weapon to fight memory war in transnational memory space. The following three research questions will be discussed.
The first one is on the legal implication of the enactment Due to the difficulties in finding definite and alive victims because of long gap of time between the abuses and present day claims, it is not easy to punish history denial under the category of crimes against reputation within current Criminal Law. Thus the Rechtsgut of new provisions is not human rights of individual victims, but rather, the historical truth, or furthermore, the social memory. The second one is on the way Auschwitz Lüge is dealt within public discourse in Korea. Although the laws against negationism in Europe currently reveal problems such as dispute over victimhood among conflicting memories or hierarchy of the historical trauma, they are regarded in Korea as ideal model of coming to terms with the past. The third one is on the political side effect of regulating history denial. Since the traumatic historical memories are no longer oppressed or
marginalized but emerged as dominant public memory through legal recognition and cultural commemoration, the deniers may claim themselves as victim of the oppression of right to expression, demanding legal recognition of their distorted version of history.
Bio
Originally trained in the field of legal theory and socio legal studies Ph D of Law from Korea University), Professor Soyoung Lee is currently teaching at the Department of Social Studies Education at Jeju National University. Her current research interest is on the mutual construction of law and social memory in Korea. By analyzing how legal sanctions against denial and distortion of the traumatic events of the past are used as weapon of mnemonical security to fight memory war, she problematizes the ways of coming to terms with the past by law.

Frontlines of Social Science Research on Korea

Supercorporate South Korea: Rethinking Hierarchy through Distinction.
Wednesday November 16, 2022, 18:00 c.t., Wilhelmstraße 133, Room 30

Abstract
Accounts of (and critiques) of negative hierarchy in South Korean society seem particularly prevalent today, reflecting various conflicts between generations, classes, or those with different mindsets. While hierarchy is often conceptualized as a negative residue from the past, this presentation argues that such thinking is unhelpful for social analysis. Rather, it might be better to think about tensions surrounding the attainment of distinction. The quest for distinction motivates educational trajectories, corporate jobsearching, real estate aspirations, and consumer tastes in South Korea’s thoroughly capitalist modernity. Based on ethnographic research from within a South Korean conglomerate, this presentation describes how corporations are as much modern organizers and arbiters of fair distinction as they are sites of old hierarchy. A thorough account of the modes of distinction, and their tensions in practice, can move beyond the trope of hierarchy that has long stuck to South Korea.

Bio
Mike Prentice is a lecturer (assistant professor) in Korean Studies in the School of East Asian Studies at the University of Sheffield. He has a PhD in linguistic anthropology from the University of Michigan. His research focuses broadly focuses on genres and technologies of communication in work and organizational life in contemporary South Korea. He is the author of Supercorporate: Distinction and Participation in Post-hierarchy South Korea.

Frontlines of Social Science Research on Korea

Legal Mobilization and Changing Governance: Disability Rights and Accessibility in South Korea.
Wednesday November 9, 2022, 18:00 c.t., Wilhelmstraße 133, Room 30

Abstract
Recent policies related to disabled people exemplify a more legalistic approach to governance in South Korea. In the past two decades, reforms have codified new rights, made rules more detailed and formal, added fines for rule-breaking, and proceduralized dispute resolution mechanisms. What accounts for this legalistic turn, which expands the role of law and courts in policy processes? Most explanations are top-down, emphasizing politicians’ strategies to cope with electoral turnover, judges’ activism, or the state’s treaty commitments. While not wrong, such explanations overlook the role of civil society actors. Through qualitative analysis of Korean movement records, policy deliberations, court cases, interviews, and news coverage related to accessible public transportation and anti-discrimination policy, I trace how activists and lawyers are contributing to the legalistic turn in governance by demanding and using more formalized regulations and participatory policy processes. In so doing, civil society actors are prying open the structure of legal opportunities. This research contributes to broader scholarship on varieties of legalism, policy diffusion, the judicialization of politics, and political participation.

Bio
Celeste Arrington (PhD, UC Berkeley) is Korea Foundation Associate Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at the George Washington University. Her research interests include law and social change, comparative policy processes, and transnational advocacy. Her first book was Accidental Activists: Victim Movements and Government Accountability in Japan and South Korea (Cornell, 2016). She has published articles in Comparative Political Studies, Law & Society Review, Journal of East Asian Studies, Law & Policy, Asian Survey, and elsewhere. With Patricia Goedde, she co-edited Rights Claiming in South Korea (Cambridge, 2021). Her current book project analyzes the legalistic turn in Korean and Japanese governance through paired case studies related to tobacco control and disability rights. In 2022-23, she is on sabbatical at the Ludwig-MaximiliansUniversität München with a research fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.