As part of a recently received major grant to enhance the university’s leadership in Korean studies, the Korean Office for Research and Education (KORE) held the 2025 Korean Studies Conference titled “Borders, Boundaries, and Displacement.” The conference was combined with a regional meeting for 14 scholars in the fields of Korean studies and diaspora from across Canada.
The in-person conference and regional meeting on November 7 and 8 was hosted by St. Mary’s University in Halifax and included an evening screening of the film Past Lives to which the local community was invited. The conference program included talks by prominent international experts, Professor Changzoo Song from the University of Auckland in New Zealand and Professor Jerome de Wit from the University of Vienna in Austria, as well as by researchers, a postdoctoral fellow and graduate students from across Canada.
Professor Ann Kim (Department of Sociology), Director of KORE, notes that the conference “truly showcased research on a global Korean diaspora that has a long and interesting history and complex ties to Korea. The conference highlighted the multidisciplinary nature of Korean studies as one of its major strengths, while holding it in-person in Halifax helped to foster closer connections among many researchers with shared interests but few opportunities to meet."
In addition to Professor Kim, Professor Mihyon Jeon (Department of Languages, Literatures and Linguistics) and Professor Thomas Klassen (School of Public Policy and Administration) also attended the conference. The conference and the regional meeting were the first of a series of events that KORE will be organizing on the Korean diaspora and Korea politics, and to advance Korean studies across Canada.