Established senior and groundbreaking junior scholars will share their expertise and experience in the fields of globalization, transnational labour and class in South Korea as part of a year-long lecture series at York University.

This series, entitled “Heterogeneity and Korean Identity in the Twenty-First Century”, will feature lectures on the rise of family-centrism in 1950s post-war South Korea and the changing nature of class inequality in present-day globalized South Korea among others.

“The speaker series explores the layers of Korean identity in the twenty-first century,” said organizer Janice Kim (History). The series is one of the activities of the Korea Study Group at the York Centre for Asian Research (YCAR) and is generously support by The Korea Foundation, the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, the Office of the Vice-President, Research and Innovation, and YCAR.

The first speaker in the series, Dong-Choon Kim, is former Standing Commissioner of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, an activist and a public intellectual. His research has focused on historical sociology of Korean politics, working class formation, and the Korean War. As an activist, Professor Kim has been at the center of progressive academic movements since the 1980s. He was also awarded the 20th Dan Je Prize in 2005 for his academic achievements and activism.

His presentation will examine the rise of family-centrism in 1950s post-war South Korea, an authoritarian period during which Koreans invested exclusively in their nuclear families. This comprises a significant and formative element, among others, of South Korean identity in the twenty-first century.

Dr. Kim’s presentation will be held on wednesday, 22 October 2014 at 3pm in Room 519, Fifth Floor, Kaneff Tower on the Keele Campus.

All are welcome to attend.

A full list of the series is available at: https://yorku.ca/research/ycar/events/lecture-series/korea-speaker-series/.

For more information: ycar@yorku.ca or www.yorku.ca/ycar