Learning (South) Korea: Thoughts on Risk Society, Violence and Mourning (Over the Sewol Ferry Disaster)

Dr. David Chu Distinguished Visitor Series

Co-Presented by the Centre for the Study of Korea

Haejoang Cho, Professor Emeritus, Department of Cultural Anthropology, Yonsei University, will be speaking as a ‘native anthropologist’ about her whirlwind journey experiencing South Korea’s compressed modernity since the 1980’s.  The discussion begins with the recent 4/16 Sewol Ferry Disaster in Jindo, that has resonated with 9/11 and the 3/11 Disaster in Fukushima.  Professor Cho will focus on the split of South Korean public responses into disparate antagonistic groups; those who say to “never forget,” and those who urge to “forget and go back to normal life.”  The discussion will elaborate on concepts of risk society, reflexivity, mourning, and violence in the context of compressed modernity and global capitalism as the lived experiences of people in South Korea.

Haejoang Cho is a cultural anthropologist in training and feminist in faith.  She is Professor Emeritus of Yonsei University in Seoul.  Her early research focused on gender studies in Korean modern history; her current interests and research are in the area of youth culture and modernity in the global/local and post-colonial context of modern day Korea.  Cho is the founding director of Haja Center (The Seoul Youth in 1999.  The Haja project has promoted ‘action research’ to address youth issues from the perspectives of feminism, cultural studies, ecological studies in the rapidly globalizing East Asian context.

Co-Sponsored by:  Asian Institute, OISE Adult Education and Community Development Program, Department of Anthropology, Munk School of global Affairs, Women & Gender Studies Institute.

Register online at:  http://webapp.mcis.utoronto.ca/EventDetails.aspx?eventid=16325