UCLA Center for the Study of Women Presents
Thinking Gender 2019: Feminists Confronting the Carceral State 
29th Annual Thinking Gender Graduate Student Research Conference

February 22, 2019
Luskin Conference Center, UCLA

KEYNOTE PANEL

Beth Richie, Professor of African American Studies and Criminology, Law and Justice, University of Illinois at Chicago

Alisa Bierria, Assistant Professor of Ethnic Studies, UC Riverside

Romarilyn Ralston, Program Coordinator, Project Rebound, California State University Fullerton

Colby Lenz, Organizer, Survived and Punished and California Coalition of Women Prisoners; and PhD Student, American Studies and Ethnicity, USC

The UCLA Center for the Study of Women invites submissions of paper, poster, and roundtable proposals for our 29^thAnnual Thinking Gender Graduate Student Research Conference. This year’s conference theme, Feminists Confronting the Carceral State, will focus on the gendered regimes of captivity, state violence, and incarceration, emphasizing feminist, queer, trans, abolitionist, and intersectional interventions.

We are specifically interested in presentations that explore gender differences in and gender as a mediator of incarceration and detention. We invite proposals for papers, roundtable presentations, and posters related to the captivity and subjugation of women, transgender, and gender-nonconforming individuals to state-sanctioned violence. We also welcome research on the criminalization of gender and sexual non-conformity, social institutions and carceral control, and intersectional abolitionist responses—historical and contemporary—to punishment.

Deadline for All Proposal Submissions: Sunday, October 28, 2018 at 11:59PM PDT

Submission Information

We invite proposal submissions for the following categories:

• Panel Presentations
• Posters
• Roundtable Sessions

Registered graduate students from any institution are eligible to submit presentation proposals for all Thinking Gender sessions, including the panel, poster, and roundtable presentations.

Registered undergraduate students from any institution are eligible to submit proposals for poster presentations only.

Full details – including proposal length requirements and additional specifications – are available in the attached call for proposals and on our website at http://csw.ucla.edu/TG19-CFP.

To participate in Thinking Gender, successful applicants will be required to pay a registration fee of $50, the entirety of which will go towards covering conference costs.

Deadlines

The deadline for all submission proposals is October 28, 2018. Submissions must be made online via the link athttp://csw.ucla.edu/TG19-CFP. Once submissions are reviewed and accepted, all participants in the paper panel sessions will be required to submit a draft of their paper by January 28, 2019, for pre-circulation among their co-panelists and faculty moderator.

For full details, including proposal length requirements, additional specifications, and a link to the online submission system, visit http://csw.ucla.edu/TG19-CFP.

Interesting conference with a call for bold papers.

Strange Korean Parallels: an international conference
for comparative approaches to the history and archaeology of Korea
and Northeast Asia with other global regions

10 – 11 January 2019
University of Helsinki, Finland
A call for bold papers

Background
As fellow Koreanists, when taking an interest in – or otherwise confronted with – any non-Korea related topic, we likely share the same uncontrollable impulse to raise Korea as analogy or contrasting case. Reading histories of other nations or topical areas, we often either encounter a comforting familiarity due to the power of analogy, or find ourselves in minor shock that history contains alternative contingencies. Such reactions can extend beyond narrative content to methodologies and historiography, where we start to wonder or imagine what the Korean equivalent of a given study or methodology might yield.

This conference is open to a range of approaches, but to begin we pose the question: What if Lieberman had included Korea within his seminal two volume study, Strange Parallels (2003, 2009)? What was Korea’s charter polity? Does the peninsula fall within ‘protected’ or ‘exposed’ zones?

The late 2000s also saw the Stanford Ancient Chinese and Mediterranean Empires Comparative History Project, culminating in two edited volumes. These principally dealt with topics of the metropoles and interiors, but what of frontier zones? Namely, how did the experience of Liaodong and northern Korea under nominal Chinese commandery rule compare to the near concomitant period of Romano-Britain?

More immediately, Korea and Vietnam have been treated as longe durée comparative subjects by a consortium of universities, with key articles – some again referencing Lieberman – recently published in IIAS’s (International Institute for Asian Studies, Leiden) The Newsletter (No.79 Spring 2018). Korean historiography, meanwhile, has been afforded comparative potential through incisive chapters included in four of the five volumes of The Oxford History of Historical Writing (2011).

Over the past decade, the number of high quality monographs on various periods and subjects of Korean history has greatly increased. Aside from reading them, what more can be done with a stimulating book or data set? Comparisons can provide a next stage, wherein the insights obtained from Korean historical contexts are utilized to inform wider discussions of global history, while the arguments based on deep, Korea specific research might be calibrated, refined or challenged in light of new analogies. Broader arguments for comparison as a tool in area studies are found in a recent article by Michael Herzfeld, juxtaposing more contemporary historical circumstances of Thailand and Greece (The Journal of Asian Studies Vol.76, No.4. 2017).

Call and conference details
We thus invite historians and archaeologists of all periods of Korea to experiment with possible comparisons and contrasts they have perhaps often thought of but rarely felt license to explore further. Strange Korean Parallels is open to proposals pertaining to all areas of Korea’s past that contain a comparative approach with other global regions or localities. Broad areas include, but are not limited to: pre- and early history, micro and macro histories, social history, intellectual history, environmental history, historiography, popular and pseudo history, and finally digital humanities methodologies.

We further invite comparative historians and specialists of other regions with an interest in treating Korea and pursuing collaborative research. The conference is open to doctoral students and above. Both individual and panel proposals are welcome.

The primary aims of this first conference are to establish the foundations for comparative approaches to Korean history, to demonstrate the potential of such research, and to develop a shared research identity among scholars. In particular this conference seeks to bridge East–West divides, and welcomes scholars from Korea and all other countries and continents, to ensure a diverse representation from the outset of this project.

Rather than panels of single speakers, the structure of the conference will be based around panels of working group discussions. For this to be productive, selected participants are asked to commit to submitting a working paper, and will be encouraged to begin dialogue with fellow panelists in advance.

During the conference we will also discuss publication strategies and we welcome early expressions of interest from journals or publishers.

Financially, we aim to provide selected participants with 3 nights accommodation in Helsinki including breakfast (9-12 January), 2 lunches and 2 dinners across the conference days. Participants are responsible for their own travel arrangements.

Please send abstracts (500-600 words) as Word files to: andrew.logie@helsinki.fi with the subject “SKP abstract [SURNAME Name]”.
Abstracts should include your name, position and affiliation.
You should receive confirmation of receipt within five working days.

The working language of the conference is English. Bilingual Korean and English language abstracts will also be accepted.

For further updates, look for the Strange Korean Parallels page (#StrangeKoreanParallels) on Facebook.

Important dates:
2018.9.30 Deadline for paper proposals (500-600 words).
2018.10.10 Notification of acceptance/rejection.
2018.10.20 Deadline for confirmation of participation.
2018.12.20 Submission of working drafts papers.

2019.1.10 Conference Day 1
2019.1.11 Conference Day 2

Strange Korean Parallels is organized and funded by Andrew Logie, assistant professor in Korean Studies at University of Helsinki, with additional funding from the Academy of Korean Studies 2018 Korean Studies Grant.

Issue Co-Editors: Amy Chazkel, Monica Kim, and Naomi Paik
Issue 137

Call for Proposals

Radical History Review seeks proposals for contributions to a forthcoming issue that will bring together historically oriented scholarship and politically engaged writing that examine places and times without police. Social movements like the Brazilian campaign Reaja ou será mort@(React or Be Killed) and Black Lives Matter in the U.S. seek not only to redress and prevent the harms inflicted by police and prisons, but also to reenvision forms of social organization that do not rely on such institutions of state violence at all. Indeed, the Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) centrally calls for their abolition, meaning not just dismantling these institutions of public discipline but also redistributing their capacities into institutions of real community safety, like schools, hospitals, and public spaces. While the idea of a world without police may appear utopian, this issue of RHR challenges us to take this proposition seriously. What would a world without police look like, and how might it function? How might radical histories of policing allow us to imagine such a world?

We welcome contributions that challenge the necessity of violence and authoritarian oversight in structuring social order, or that use historical study to disrupt the assumption that police are necessary. This issue aims to present a critically broadened set of political stakes, practices, and visions in the imagining of radical alternatives, through investigations of social peace and public discipline that existed before or against the institutionalization of the police–those that actually existed as well as those projected but never realized. We are interested in how people and societies have challenged the institutionalization of policing as a natural extension of the modern state, as well as in how different forms of policing arose in eras before or spaces beyond the modern state.

Submissions may focus on all parts of the world during any time period, and those that examine places outside the US and premodern histories are especially encouraged.

Possible topics include:

• New forms of policing and public order that have arisen during “transitional” moments, such as foreign occupation, decolonization or emancipation, or during crises like blackouts or natural disasters
• Pre-police practices of community safety
• What might histories of societies without police reveal about the relationship between policing and capitalism? What did public safety mean before capitalist property relations and modern state formations?
• A world beyond police as represented in popular culture
• Considerations of the types of social control workers who preceded, replaced, or acted against or alongside police, like bounty hunters, slave catchers, night watchmen, paramilitary actors, subcontractors, security guards, Minutemen, vigilantes, self-defense committees, teachers
• Police as workers, and understanding the labor of policing in the context of abolitionism
• Language and radical etymologies: What vocabularies for describing/imagining worlds without police have been available?

The RHR publishes material in a variety of forms. We welcome submissions that use images as well as text. In addition to monographic articles based on archival research, we encourage submissions to our various departments, including: Historians at Work; Teaching Radical History; Public History; Interviews; and (Re)Views.

By September 1, 2018, please submit a 1-2 page abstract summarizing the article you wish as an attachment to contactrhr@gmail.com with “Issue 137 Abstract Submission” in the subject line. By November 15, 2018, authors will be notified whether they should submit a full version of their article for peer review. Completed articles will be due on February 15, 2019.

Those articles selected for publication after the peer review process will be included in issue 137 of the Radical History Review, scheduled to appear in May 2020.

Radical History Review
Tamiment Library, 10th Floor
New York University
70 Washington Square South
New York, NY 10012
Email: contactrhr@gmail.com
Visit the website at http://chnm.gmu.edu/rhr/rhr.htm

More information here: https://ikaa.org/research-symposium/

The Fifth International Symposium on Korean Adoption Studies Call for Papers

Symposium Date: Wednesday, July 31, 2019

Submissions Due by: December 1, 2018

Submit online: https://tinyurl.com/iskas2019

Questions? Please contact the Symposium organizers Sara Docan-Morgan, Boon Young Han, Kimberly McKee, Anders Riel Müller, Eunha Na, and Elizabeth Raleigh at ISKAS2019@gmail.com.

The International Korean Adoptee Associations (IKAA) will convene the Fifth International Symposium on Korean Adoption Studies as part of the IKAA Gathering 2019. The field of Korean adoption studies is specifically concerned with international adoption from Korea including the experiences of overseas adopted Koreans, birth families, adoptive families, and the families of adoptees. We recognize and celebrate the interdisciplinary nature of Korean adoption studies. These scholars work at the intersections of Asian and Korean studies, postcolonial and cultural studies, and social and behavioral sciences. Their research is also engaged with issues of race and ethnicity, migration and diaspora, gender and family, and globalization and transnationalism.

The day-long symposium will bring together scholars from around the world who are conducting research in the field of Korean adoption studies. We also welcome submissions from scholars creating linkages between transnational adoptions from Korea and other sending countries such as China, Ethiopia, Colombia, and Ukraine. By bringing together a diverse group of scholars from multiple fields, we hope to build on the momentum of the previous Research Symposiums to further academic inquiry and strengthen the network of scholars tackling questions surrounding international adoption.

We encourage submissions from everyone, but will prioritize academic papers from those who have completed or are currently enrolled in a terminal master’s or Ph.D. program. All studies involving human subjects must abide by IKAA’s Policies and Guidelines for Conducting Scholarly Research, which can be downloaded by clicking HERE. We are particularly interested in research aligned with the IKAA Gathering theme, “Spanning Generations: Communities, Families & Leadership.” We seek presentations/papers on a range of topics that represent as many of the current research approaches on Korean adoption as possible. Suggested topics include (but are not limited to):

• Adoptees’ political activism and political identities including the ways adoptee identity shapes political identifications and activities, and vice versa (e.g. activism of adoptees in Europe, North America, Australasia, and Korea; adoptees’ involvement with groups such as unwed mothers’ groups).
• Adoption and immigration policies in sending and receiving countries (e.g. deportation; undocumented adoptees; adoption migration in times of anti-immigration politics, voluntary return migration).
• Negotiating kinship and affective relationships (e.g. genetic testing, family formation, birth search and reunion, community building).
• Adoptee intersectional identities (e.g. disability, sexuality, gender, race, class).
• Changing representations of adoption in contemporary literature, drama, and performance, and popular culture.
• Adoption and the biopolitics of post-war and post-colonial state formation in South Korea (e.g. social welfare policies, militarism, status of unwed mothers).
• Ethics and positionality in Korean adoption research, imagining and researching adoption, including methodologies, disciplines and the politics of criticism.

Submission Deadline and Instructions 
Submissions are due December 1, 2018 . No late proposals will be accepted. We will accept proposals via online submission site only (https://tinyurl.com/iskas2019). Please be prepared to submit a 750-1,000 word abstract and 150-300 word bio. We will not accept or consider submissions that are lacking information. Selection notifications will be made by e-mail by February.

Title of position: Assistant Professor in Inter-Asian and Transpacific Studies

The Department of Literature within the Division of Arts & Humanities at the University of California, San Diego (https://literature.ucsd.edu) is committed to excellence and diversity within the faculty, staff, and student body and seeks candidates for an Assistant Professor in Inter-Asia and Transpacific Studies. The candidate must have a PhD degree in literature, film, cultural studies, or related field by the time of the appointment. More specifically, we seek a colleague whose innovative research examines two or more Asian/Pacific/American countries/territories in the modern and/or contemporary period. Preference will be given to a candidate who uses two or more languages (in addition to English) in her/his research. Another preference is a comparatist with proven interdisciplinary, crossmedia research skills.

Ideal candidates should have an excellent record of publication, teaching, and service, as well as demonstrable interest in working within a world literature department with a focus on critical theory, social justice, and cultural, ethnic, and gender studies, where faculty members work in multiple languages, geographies, and historical periods. The candidates are also expected to enhance a campus-wide cluster of excellence in Transpacific Asian Studies and collaborate with Chinese Studies, Japanese Studies, Transnational Korean Studies, Anthropology, Ethnic Studies, History, Sociology, and Global Policy and Strategy (GPS).

We welcome candidates with demonstrated excellence in college-level teaching. Candidates will be expected to teach a range of graduate and undergraduate courses in literature, film, and culture. In addition to specialized seminars, the successful candidate should also be prepared to teach large enrollment courses in Asian cultures for non-majors.

Preferred candidates should contribute or demonstrate promise in contributions to advancing equity and diversity, such as leadership in teaching, mentoring, research or service towards building an equitable and diverse scholarly and artistic environment and programs that foster inclusion and access for historically underrepresented groups. Salary and level of appointment are based on qualifications and UC pay scale. Proof of authorization to work in the U. S. will be required prior to employment (Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1985).

Closing Date: October 31, 2018

Literature (JPF01854)

Applicants are asked to submit applications using UCSD’s online Recruit web page: https://apol-recruit.ucsd.edu/apply/JPF01854.

Applicants should include a personal statement summarizing their contributions to diversity and leadership. Contribution to diversity statements could include an attention to diverse learning needs, engaging learning fields of diverse communities, pedagogical methods that address learning needs of students from diverse backgrounds, an awareness of inequities in education and research, a track record of specific activities that address and mitigate inequities, follow-up of positive impact on under-represented students, and a specific plan of activities and follow-up at UCSD.

UCSD is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer with a strong institutional commitment to excellence through diversity (https://diversity.ucsd.edu/).

Tenure-Track Assistant Professor in Korean Studies

The Department of Asian Languages and Cultures at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, in New Brunswick invites applications for a tenure-track position at the level of Assistant Professor in Korean Studies to start in September 2019. Applications are invited from any of the key areas of Korean Studies, including literature, history, cultural studies, gender & sexuality studies, visual & popular culture, film and new media studies. Candidates with multi/interdisciplinary, interregional, and transnational expertise able to complement the research and teaching of departmental faculty will be especially valued. Native or near-native proficiency in Korean and English is required.

Responsibilities of the position include teaching at all levels from undergraduate introductory to graduate courses such as Introduction to Korean Culture, Korean Cinema, Korean Literature in Translation, and Modern Korean History, serving as an integral part of our undergraduate and graduate program in Korean and Asian Studies. The successful candidate will undertake innovative scholarly research and maintain the ongoing bridge our department has established with universities and scholarly institutions in Korea and other East Asian countries.

Applicants should either possess a Ph.D. in one of the key areas of Korean Studies as listed above or have completed the Ph.D. by the beginning of the appointment. A commitment to scholarly research, excellence in teaching, and service to the university and the field is expected. Salary is competitive. Qualified applicants should send a complete dossier including letter of application, CV, sample publication or thesis chapter, and three letters of reference through the following link: http://jobs.rutgers.edu/postings/74052

The deadline for submission of applications is December 01, 2018.

Rutgers is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer; women and minorities are encouraged to apply.

For complete information: http://careers.uoregon.edu/cw/en-us/job/522319/assistant-professor-of-korean-linguistics

Position Announcement
The University of Oregon’s East Asian Languages and Literatures Department invites applications for a tenure-track position of Assistant Professor in Korean Linguistics, to begin in fall 2019. We seek candidates specializing in Korean Linguistics, Korean Applied Linguistics or a related field. Competitive applicants will be capable of outstanding research, teaching at the graduate and undergraduate levels, and mentorship of graduate students. We are especially interested in scholars who can contribute to the development of an undergraduate Korean Studies major, and who will enhance both the department’s existing strengths in East Asian Linguistics and the visibility of EALL and UO as a center of research excellence for Korean.

Department or Program Summary
We are a diverse and growing department with strengths in the study of modern and pre-modern languages, linguistics, literatures and cultures of China, Japan and Korea. The department offers Majors in Chinese, Japanese; Minors in Chinese, Japanese and Korean; and MA and PhD programs in linguistics and literature/culture. Undergraduate students may also pursue a Major in Asian Studies with a Korean focus through the interdisciplinary Asian Studies program. Our programs receive additional support from The Center for Asian and Pacific Studies, a research and outreach center that houses a U.S. Department of Education Title VI National Resource Center (NRC) for East Asian Studies. The department faculty collaborates with departments and programs across campus, including Linguistics, Asian Studies, Comparative Literature, and Cinema Studies.

We strive to cultivate a community that promotes the teaching, learning, and research of the languages, literatures, philosophies, and cultures of East Asia. We recognize and respect the diverse cultural products, practices, and perspectives of East Asian societies and the world community, with the goal of preparing students for current and future global multilingual endeavors. We are committed to the creation and sustainment of a learning and working environment that fosters respect and appreciation for the values, skills, and abilities of everyone; this includes individuals of diverse genders, colors, ethnicities, sexual orientations, religious beliefs, ages, learning and physical abilities, socioeconomic status, and marital status. We endeavor to foster an environment free from intolerance and conducive to mutual cultural understanding.

We particularly welcome applications from scholars who are from populations historically underrepresented in the academy, and/or who have experience working with students from diverse backgrounds.

Minimum Requirements
Ph.D. in Korean Linguistics, Korean Applied Linguistics, or related field in hand by time of appointment.

Preferred Qualifications
Preference will be given to candidates who have a demonstrated commitment and contribution to institutional diversity, equity, and inclusion; who have expertise in empirical research on Korean language and language use, second language acquisition, and pedagogy; and who have evidence of or clear potential for productive and high-quality research.

About the University
The University of Oregon is one of only two Pacific Northwest members of the Association of American Universities and holds the distinction of a “very high research activity” ranking in the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. The UO enrolls more than 20,000 undergraduate and 3,600 graduate students representing all 50 states and nearly 100 countries. In recent years, the university has increased the diversity of its student body while raising average GPAs and test scores for incoming students. The UO’s beautiful, 295-acre campus features state-of-the art facilities in an arboretum-like setting. The UO is located in Eugene, a vibrant city of 157,000 with a wide range of cultural and culinary offerings, a pleasant climate, and a community engaged in environmental and social concerns. The campus is within easy driving distance of the Pacific Coast, the Cascade Mountains, and Portland.

Application Deadline
November 1, 2018; position open until filled

Call for Papers:  Korean Film Workshop at UC Berkeley 2019

Stupendous Villainy in Korean Cinema

The Center for Korean Studies at UC Berkeley is pleased to announce a call for working papers for a Korean film workshop, tentatively scheduled for late-May of 2019.  This workshop aims to illuminate the subject of villainy in popular films of Korea from the 2000s to the present.

The continuing success of Korean films has garnered the interest of critics in the persistence of the popular genre form. Their appropriation of blockbuster aesthetics, reworking of narrative and genre conventions, as well as the treatment of diverse subject matters, have all received keen critical attention. This workshop focuses on a narrower element of Korean film’s popular appeal: the stupendous depiction of villainy. Through an examination of the strange depth of antiheroes and psychopaths, this workshop endeavors to elucidate an oft-neglected, yet impressive aesthetic achievement of recent popular Korean cinema.  The sophisticated technique of character development in creating the archetype of the villain not only highlights the broader range and depth of new trends in popular filmmaking, but also calls for new ways to conceptualize the relationship between filmic representation and the society at large.  The broad contour of the antagonist, ranging from the lure of transgression and a fear of the dreadful, will be of particular interest.

The issues related to the subject of villainy in Korean cinema include (but are not limited to):

• Taxonomy of violent behaviors and actions on screen
• Film censorship and its impact on the depiction of antisocial gestures
• The broad question of evil and evil-doing
• Antiheroes and psychopaths as a social and epistemological problem
• Cinematic discourses of ethnic, racial and/or sexual Other and villainy
• Configuration of villainy and genre conventions
• Dynamic narrative elements and innovation inthe making of villainous characters
• Meanings and limitations of investigative narrative structures, as found in, for instance, crime thrillers and film noirs.
• Allegorical and/or political implications of villain characters
• The deployment of celebrity “star” image in performance, presentation, and consumption of villain characters
• Corporeal characteristics, e.g., deformity, disfiguration or disability, associated with villain characters
• Clinical or psychological account of abnormal behavior or crime
• Use of violence, retributive justice, and law
• Temporal and spatial features of threat and restoration of order
• Villainy as a means for intercultural inquiry and analysis
• Villainy as an optic for understanding politics, history and culture
• Neoliberal order, precarity and survival
• Relationship between space and subjectivity, or urban and/or rural locations of evil
• Forgiveness and amnesia

For those who are interested in presenting a paper, please submit a 250-word abstract and short CV to the email address below by Dec 10, 2018.  Authors of accepted proposals will be notified by Jan 5, 2019.  Completed papers are requested by April 1, 2019  to provide sufficient time for discussants to prepare responses.

anjinsoo@berkeley.edu

The Center for Korean Studies will provide roundtrip economy-class airfare, basic ground transportation, hotel accommodations, and meals during the workshop for all accepted participants.

DEADLINES

December 10, 2018: Submit paper proposal (with a short CV)
January 5, 2019: Notification of acceptances
April 1, 2019: Completed papers due
Late-May, 2019: Date of workshop

University of Washington – Seattle, Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies

Korean History, Rank, Assistant Professor

The Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies and the Department of History at the University of Washington (UW) invite applications for an assistant professor, tenure stream position in Korean history to begin September 2019.  This position will be split 50%/50% between the Jackson School of International Studies (JSIS) and the Department of History.

The successful candidate will be expected to participate in undergraduate and graduate teaching both in JSIS and in History, offering large survey courses, including a survey of modern Korean history, as well as more advanced courses; conduct independent research; and contribute to the University’s distinguished and diverse programs in undergraduate and graduate studies.

We are especially interested in candidates who can contribute to the mission of both JSIS and History, and can take a leadership role in Korean Studies at the University of Washington. JSIS is an interdisciplinary department that houses many of the UW’s area studies programs. All UW faculty members are expected to engage in teaching, research, and service.  Candidates should have a completed Ph.D. or foreign equivalent by the date of appointment.

Applications will be accepted until the position is filled, but preference will be given to applications received by November 15, 2018.  Applicants should submit the following:

– Cover letter describing research and teaching interests
– CV
– Examples of your work on modern Japanese history
– Course syllabi
– Three letters of recommendation

Materials should be submitted to:  apply.interfolio.com/32097

Any questions about application procedures may be addressed to the Jackson School of International Studies at jsisempl@uw.edu.

The University of Washington is building a culturally diverse faculty and staff and strongly encourages applications from women, minorities, individuals with disabilities, and covered veterans. The University of Washington is an affirmative action and equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, protected veteran or disabled status, or genetic information. A recipient of the 2006 Alfred P. Sloan Award for Faculty Career Flexibility, the University of Washington is committed to supporting the work-life balance of its faculty.

Mine feels like such an old piece of writing, but I’m excited to be part of this amazing collection.

Han, JHJ. 2018. “Shifting Geographies of Proximity: Korean-led Evangelical Christian Missions and the U.S. Empire.” In Ethnographies of U.S. Empire, edited by Carole McGranahan and John Collins, 194-213. Duke University Press. Link

[Excerpt pp. 197-198]

Ethnographies of Empire book cover, 2018

While the overall criticism directed at the hostage case [Korean missionaries in Afghanistan in 2007] tended to focus on the collusion between evangelical Christianity and U.S. imperialism, several other significant questions were also posed in the process: What in the world were Korean missionaries doing in Afghanistan? Who exactly were these missionaries — variously characterized as devoted church volunteers, intrepid humanitarian aid workers, and foolhardy zealots — and what propelled them to embrace the risks and dangers of foreign missions? Arguably all evangelical missionaries seek to transform the world in one way or another by spreading the Christian Gospel, but how does the pursuit of world evangelization by this particular group of missionaries challenge or fortify the power relations of domination and subordination that underpin the project of U.S. empire? To what extent do Korean missionaries operate as proxies of the U.S. empire or assert their own neocolonial or subimperial ambitions? How do we theorize the deep linkages between the ethics of humanitarian service, imperative of religious expansion, mandate for geopolitical security, and logic of neoliberal capitalism?

I contend that the Korean-led missionary movement responded to these critical questions by reiterating evangelical missions as a secular and cosmopolitan project, and significantly, by conjuring the specter of Islam as geopolitical threat and global competitor. The hostage taking in Afghanistan thus served as a pivotal moment in religious geopolitics in the Korean context. But this story is impossible to narrate without a broader historical account of United States–Korea proximity; Korea’s evangelical vigor arguably lies in its history of indebted engagement with the American empire. Politically and theologically conservative Korean Protestantism — which constitutes the dominant mainstream and political leadership of Korean Christianity, and is especially prominent among immigrant Korean Americans in the United States — is inextricable from its Cold War collusion with religious and geopolitical-economic reaches of the American empire. This discussion of history — not as a bygone past but as an enduring present — gestures toward my contention that Korean evangelicals are producing Islamophobia as a geopolitical-religious and world orientation project. By aligning Korea with the “Free World” even as Korea reaches out to the developing world, world evangelical missions not only consolidate and reinforce existing affinities and alliances, but also engage in an ongoing calibration of distance and proximity in relation to the empire.

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, WOMEN’S STUDIES, position # 84804, full-time, 9-month, tenure track, permanent appointment, to begin August 1, 2019, subject to position clearance and availability of funds.

The Department of Women’s Studies, College of Social Sciences, University of Hawai‘i at Manoa, seeks a candidate with expertise that is well situated at the intersection of sexuality, sexual violence, sexual harassment, and queer embodiment.

Duties: To develop and teach graduate and undergraduate courses (online and face-to-face); advise undergraduate and graduate students; maintain an active research program; seek extramural funding; engage in departmental, university, professional, as well as community service activities. Other duties as assigned by the chair.

Minimum Qualifications:

Earned Ph.D. in Women’s or Gender and Sexuality Studies, or other related field from an accredited college, university or foreign equivalent. ABDs will be considered but all degree requirements must be completed prior to August 1, 2019. ABDs must also submit a letter from their committee chair attesting that dissertation and all degree requirements will be completed prior to the date of hire. Demonstrated ability to conduct research and teach in the areas of sexuality, sexual violence, sexual harassment, or queer studies. Evidence of active scholarly research agenda. Demonstrated ability to mentor undergraduate and/or graduate students with diverse backgrounds and experiences. Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively with diverse faculty and staff.

Desirable Qualifications:

A feminist/gender studies certificate or equivalent from an accredited college, university or foreign equivalent. Candidates whose interdisciplinary research agenda intersects with any of the following will be highly desirable: gender, justice, and law; queer theory; race and racialization; or disability studies. Candidates who demonstrate ability to contribute to the department’s and university’s strengths in: Hawai‘i and the Asia-Pacific region; migration and deportation; transnational feminism; gender, justice, and the law; and social justice; and have previous experience teaching courses on gender, violence, and sexuality; as well as developing and teaching online courses will be given preference. The desirable candidate will also have a record of peer reviewed publications, externally funded research, and community engagement.

Salary Range: Salary commensurate with experience.

To apply: Submit a cover letter indicating how you satisfy the minimum and desirable qualifications, a curriculum vitae, a writing sample, evidence of teaching effectiveness (teaching portfolio), official transcripts (copies are acceptable, however, official transcripts will be required upon hire). Three letters of recommendation are to be sent directly to:

Dr. L. Ayu Saraswati, Chair
University of Hawaii, Manoa
Department of Women’s Studies
2424 Maile Way, 722 Saunders Hall
Honolulu, HI 96822
USA

Application Submission:
All applications must be submitted through NeoGov. Visit https://www.governmentjobs.com/careers/hawaiiedu and search for Position Number 0084804, JOB# 2018-00790 to submit an application. Application materials will not be returned. Incomplete applications will not be accepted.

Inquiries: 
Dr. L. Ayu Saraswati, Chair
University of Hawaii, Manoa
Department of Women’s Studies
2424 Maile Way, 722 Saunders Hall
Honolulu, HI 96822
USA
(808)-956-8669
luhp@hawaii.edu

Continuous Recruitment: Review of applications to begin on January 9, 2019 and continue until position is filled. Applications received by that date will be given priority.

The University of Hawai‘i is an Equal Employment Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer.

Here’s a short piece that just came out on SSRC’s The Immanent Frame: Secularism, religion, and the public sphere blog. I was honored to be invited by the editors to contribute to a discussion of social inequality in/and religious studies. Given my ambivalent affiliation with the field of religious studies, I wasn’t sure at first who to address in my commentary. Conservative Korean clergy and religion scholars who think queer and trans people are the devil’s spawn and would never read The Immanent Frame? American religious studies scholars who could care less about Christian conservatives in South Korea? South Korean theologians who roll their eyes at the vulgarity of anti-queer protesters but do not lift a finger to challenge homophobia and heterosexism all around them?

Hard to say… So instead of preaching to the choir or wagging my finger in high-and-mightly self-righteousness, I decided to tell a short story as a way to illustrate my thoughts about the spaces of solidarity and hospitality. The disputatious line between queers and anti-queer protesters isn’t just a nuisance—even though it is—but also a meaningful site where an encounter takes place, albeit in hostile opposition. The line doesn’t divide secular queers from Christian homophobes. The line demonstrates the contentious struggle over co-existence and hospitality. It’s not referenced explicitly in this blog post, but in my book manuscript, I hope to engage more deeply with the anthropologist and independent scholar Kim Hyun-kyung’s phenomenal 2015 book, Saram, Changso, Hwantae 사람, 장소, 환대 [Person, Place, Hospitality].

"Don’t be a resistant learner. There’s nothing better than graduate students who are engaged, think for themselves, and speak up in class instead of silently taking notes like excellent sheep. And there’s nothing more irritating, at least for me, than those who are more interested in showing off how much they already know than in learning anything new."

Who Speaks for Korean Americans?
Sunday, April 7, 2019
3-5pm

Good Neighborhood Church, Founders Room
540 S. Commonwealth Ave. Los Angeles CA 90020

Event will be held in English and Korean. Please RSVP at pkan-april7.eventbrite.com so we can prepare enough food & drinks.

Panel discussion featuring Yongho Kim (Organizer, Korean Resource Center KRC) on homelessness and housing politics, Seo Yun Son (Organizer, Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance KIWA) on wage theft and labor organizing, and Kavior Moon (Art historian, GYOPO) on mural politics in Los Angeles Koreatown. Moderated by Ju Hui Judy Han (Professor, UCLA Gender Studies).

Presented by Progressive Korean American Network (PKAN), a collective of Korean Americans in Southern California interested in building community and sharing information and resources. This is the first in #whospeaks4kas, a series of events we are organizing to feature diverse voices and foster critical discussion of community concerns. To join our email list or for more information, contact progressivekanetwork@gmail.com.

The Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Pennsylvania announces two Postdoctoral Fellowships in Korean Studies for the 2019–20 academic year. 

The fellowship will cover the 12-month period between August 1, 2019 and July 31, 2020 and provide a stipend of $50,000 and benefits, including travel expenses for attending the 2020 Annual Meeting of the Association for Asian Studies. (On benefits, including medical, dental, vision, and life insurance, see http://www.sas.upenn.edu/deans-office/postdocs/postdocstaff.htm) The postdoctoral fellow will also receive a shared office space and access to libraries and other resources at Penn.

The fellow will be required to teach two courses, one in Fall 2019 and one in Spring 2020.  There is the option of teaching a graduate-level class.  Fellows also will be encouraged to participate in the EALC Faculty Colloquium and to present their research at one of the sessions.

• Application Instructions
• A complete application must include:
• Cover Letter
• C.V.
• Names of three people whom we may contact for letters of recommendation

Completed Application Form via Interfolio: https://apply.interfolio.com/62123

Interfolio Application Link: https://apply.interfolio.com/62123

The application process opens immediately and will continue until the positions are filled.

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