Fulbright Forum – November 4, 2021

Dr. Roger Hart

Title: The Global Race for Quantum Supremacy in the Asian 21st Century

Fulbright Forum – November 4, 2021

Dr. Philip Plotch

Title: Teaching Korean Students about American Politics

Fulbright Forum – December 13, 2019

Jean Yoon

Title: Process Notes / Refrains

Presented by Jean Yoon
Junior Researcher
University of Notre Dame

December 13, 2019, 7:00PM at the Fulbright Building
Please RSVP by Thursday, December 12

Abstract

My mother land was a home I had never lived in, and my mother tongue was a language I couldn’t speak. Or barely. I found I felt I was a child again, fumbling drawing after drawing of my mother’s jaguar-shaped pin. If I could describe the exact dimensions of the wound, I could fashion a stent to fit that concavity and thereby resolve the surface–this was the limit to which I aimed my words. But the abyss just kept increasing in dimension and complexity. I wasn’t writing, I was trying to Botox the past. I said I would write a book of essays about mothers and motherhood, but not mothers per se, rather the ways in which we (who?) measure mothers as such, represent them to ourselves, restage the mother-figure in other realms–civic, cinematic, oneiric. On the eve of my departure, Professor Choi said, I think you think you want to find your mother, this mother-relation. But no–you are going to have to make her up on your own.

For this Fulbright Forum, I will read from and discuss my writing in progress. I will also give a brief artist talk contextualizing my research and present a selection of works in-progress, theoretical, unrealized or unrealizable.

(keywords: language attrition, pronouns, lost archives, ancestor communication, divination, saju, calligraphy, inarticulacy, translation, deletion, displacement, distraction, renovation, screen culture, anti-aging, meditation, forgetting.)

Presenter

Jean Yoon is a writer, researcher, and interdisciplinary artist whose work examines the functions of memory and the performance of belonging. Jean’s work has been supported by the Nicholas Sparks Fellowship, University of Notre Dame Creative Writing Program, and Tin House Writer’s Workshop. Their poems and essays have been published or are forthcoming in Cosmonauts Avenue, Pulpmouth, jubilat, the Kenyon Review online, and Ghost City Press, among others. They hold an MFA in Poetry from the University of Notre Dame and a BA in Linguistics from Reed College.

Fulbright Forum – November 21, 2019

Howard Waitzkin

Title: “Moving Beyond Capitalism for Our Health: Focus on the USA and Korea”

Presented by Howard Waitzkin
Fulbright Senior Scholar
University of New Mexico

**THURSDAY, November 21, 7:00 p.m.** at the Fulbright Building
Please RSVP by Wednesday, November 20

Abstract: These days, our health and well-being are sorted through a profit-seeking financial complex that monitors and commodifies our lives. In the United States and some other countries with capitalist political-economic systems, our access to competent, affordable health care grows more precarious every day. In contrast, the Republic of Korea, also with a capitalist political-economic system, has constructed a single payer national health program that aims to achieve universally accessible health care. A single payer national health program, known as “Improved Medicare for All,” similar to Korea’s current system, is gaining much wider support in the United States. We need a deeper understanding of the changing structural conditions that link capitalism, health care, and health. Recognizing that such linkages deserve closer study to assist in real-world struggles for change, Howard Waitzkin, in collaboration with the medical professionals, scholars, and activists who comprise the Working Group on Health Beyond Capitalism, wrote Health Care Under the Knife: Moving Beyond Capitalism for Our Health (2018). Waitzkin will discuss just what’s wrong with the U.S. medical system, how it got this way, and a strategy of moving toward post-capitalist health-care systems and societies, with current examples from the United States and Korea.

Affiliations: Howard Waitzkin is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Sociology and former Professor of Internal Medicine at the University of New Mexico. He practices internal medicine part-time in rural New Mexico and Illinois. For many years he has been active in struggles focusing on health access in the United States and Latin America. He is coordinator, with the Working Group for Health Beyond Capitalism, of Health Care Under the Knife: Moving Beyond Capitalism for Our Health (2018) and author of Medicine and Public Health at the End of Empire (2011), among other books. Currently he is teaching at Seoul National University School of Public Health, as a Fulbright Senior Scholar.

Fulbright Forum – October 4, 2019

Anat Schwartz

Photo taken by the researcher at a rally organized by Fireworks Femi Action on June 19, 2019, to commemorate the 2016 gender-motivated murder of a young woman at Gangnam station exit 10.

Feminism Reboot: Hashtags and Contemporary Feminist Activism in South Korea

Presented by Anat Schwartz
Junior Researcher
University of California, Irvine

Friday, October 4, 7:00 p.m.** at the Fulbright Building
Please RSVP by Thursday, October 3

Feminism in South Korea has a long and active history. Contemporary feminist activism is a response to an enduring history of misogyny and socioeconomic discrimination, and is complicated by current issues, such as illegal spy cameras, revenge pornography, and biased prosecution. In my dissertation, Contemporary Feminist Activism and Communities in South Korea, I delve into the history of feminism, activism, and community-making in South Korea, paying attention to the ways in which online spaces effect offline activism. In this presentation, I will present from a chapter on the movement against sexual violence, arguing that hashtags are a vital citational tool for information sharing and solidarity.

In this presentation, I focus on feminist activism post-2015. 2015 and 2016 are cited by activists and scholars as the beginning of a “reboot” of feminism by young activists. I will discuss feminist activism, from the controversial radical online feminist community Megalia, the 2015 #IAmAFeminist hashtag (Nanŭn_P’eminisŭt’ŭimnida) and the 2016 hashtag #my_sexual_abuse_in_00 (#00_kye_nae_sŏngp’oklyŏk), to the MeToo movement and anti-illegal spy cam protests at Hyewha subway station in 2018. As the “reboot” of feminism in South Korea is still taking shape, this presentation is an intervention into ongoing activism and relies on fieldwork interviews with Korean feminist activists and participant observation throughout South Korea.

Anat Schwartz is a doctoral candidate in East Asian Studies at the University of California Irvine. As a 2019 Fulbright scholar, Anat is affiliated with Yonsei University’s Cultural Anthropology department.
Anat’s research takes an interdisciplinary approach to contemporary South Korean feminist activism and communities, particularly to the intersections of feminist spaces on and off social media. Anat’s areas of interest include gender and sexuality studies, contemporary South Korean society and culture, feminist epistemology, and cultural theory. Anat’s CV can be accessed at: http://anatschwartz.com/

Fulbright Forum – May 17, 2019

Drew Ippoliti

Conversations With Here & Not Here

The economic forces and rapid shifts of the 1970’s and 1980’s created many changes in Korean society. Unlike the other rapidly developing economies of that same period: Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan, modernization led to a refreshed, more important societal view of traditional cultural arts like Korean ceramics. By exploring driving trends and attitudes that led to Korea’s contemporary view of art and craft, this research will consider if such a shift is reproducible or wholly unique to Korea.

Arts Education often avoids discussion of economic trends and the larger view of artistic output as a luxury. The goal is both to maintain and discuss the field on its aesthetic merit rather than its investment potential. This approach both protects participants from the gritty notions of money and hinders them without a sense of how artistic endeavors are valued and how realpolitik views them. Employing an outsider’s perspective, this research seeks to understand the growth and exploitable potential that arises when an art material is imbedded into cultural identity, while exploring issues of the economics that surrounds the art world.

Relying on interviews with Korean economists, art curators, art collectors, and craftspeople for information and reference material this project will develop an aggregated view of how the contemporary landscape has developed. Findings of this research will be constructed around a tactile exchange of objects and ideas, focusing on how ceramics will continue to be vital to cultures inside and outside of South Korea. This lecture and conversation will cover preliminary research findings, the development of material research and the field of visual research as well as profiling possibilities of future developments.

Drew Ippoliti is an American artist, researcher and educator; he currently serves as an Assistant Professor of Ceramics, and Department Coordinator at the University of Akron in Ohio (USA). As part of the Fulbright Scholars Fellowship Drew is stationed at Kookmin University’s College of Design in Seoul.

Drew’s artwork investigates how ceramics explores and explains the regions where both culture and craft collide. Drew’s work has been exhibited internationally and is held in multiple public and private collections internationally in Denmark, Holland, China, Taiwan and Korea.

Fulbright Forum – April 26, 2019

Margarethe McDonald

Accented vs native exposure in Korean children’s English abilities

The Korean government invests an estimated $15 billion annually on English education and testing (Park, 2009). The importance of English education is noticeable in the early age that children start learning English. Although English education in schools is not mandatory until 3rd grade, many private academies and English preschools offer English education much earlier. Despite such a push for early language acquisition, adults in Korea self-report low English speaking abilities, especially as compared to adults in other countries in Asia (Jeon, 2006). This is likely due to the focus of teaching English with the goal of test-taking for the national college entrance exam which does not incorporate an oral component. Therefore, despite years of English education, English pronunciation in adults growing up in Korea tends to be highly accented. In typical language classrooms around the world pronunciation is often undertaught as compared to other aspects of language such as grammar and vocabulary. In classrooms without a focus on oral language skills, pronunciation practice is even more neglected.

Language research shows the language exposure is a fundamental necessity for native-like pronunciation. The earlier the exposure begins, the more native-like the language pronunciation is likely to become (Flege, Yeni-Komshian, & Liu, 1999). Further, language exposure can change phonological perception in both adults and children such that after as little as one minute of exposure to accented speech, comprehension of the speech improves (Clarke & Garett 2004).

Within schools and private academies, both native Korean teachers and native English teachers often teach English in a mixed classroom format. This means children have exposure to both Korean-accented English and native English speakers. The direct effects of such exposure on the language outcomes of children is not well known. This project examined how short-term exposure to both native and accented English affects the English perception and production abilities of Korean children aged 6-9 years old. Sixty-eight children with a wide range of English abilities participated in the experiment. Children performed an experimental task which included English exposure to words which included difficult contrasts for Korean speakers (e.g. /p/-/f/ or /l/-/r/) followed by the children pronouncing words which contained the contrasts and perceiving minimal pairs which included the contrasts. They performed this task in two conditions-one where the language exposure was by a native English speaker, and one where the exposure was by a Korean-accented English speaker. Children also performed Korean and English language testing to establish baseline proficiency.

The results of the production experiment will be presented in addition to initial results from the perception experiment. Child language abilities and daily accent exposure will also be examined in the context of the results. Results will be discussed both in the context of English language education in Korea as well as more broadly to other bilingual language classrooms.

Margarethe McDonald is a PhD candidate in Communication Science & Disorders at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research focuses on bilingual language acquisition in children and adults, with a focus on phonetic and phonological systems. Margarethe has a B.A. in Linguistics and East Asian Languages & Cultures from Indiana University. She is currently a Fulbright Junior Researcher working in Dr. Eon-Suk Ko’s Child Language Lab at Chosun University in Gwangju, South Korea.

Fulbright Forum – March 22, 2019

Victoria Vardanega

Continuities and Ruptures: Press, Government, and Society in Modern Korea

South Korea is an OECD nation with a functional democracy and global influence. Despite these significant qualities, South Korea has a 2019 Freedom House rating of 83 with a partially free press and restricted means of political expression. This conflicting issue of South Korea as a democracy with a restricted press begs the question of how such a disconnect came to be. This question can be answered by studying the complex relationship between South Korea’s press, government, and society.

This research serves to explore the greater context of these relationships by conducting a detailed analysis of the development of South Korea’s online press in the 21st century. By examining the degree of relationship changes as well as transforming motivations, I will shed light onto the important historical and economic background from which South Korea’s press has developed. By doing so, I will illuminate how the current state of the Korean press is entangled in economic and political institutions. I apply this contextual analysis to the media operations of the present with the usage of data analysis to study the existence of media bias in articles surrounding the 2014 Sewol Tragedy and the 2018 North-South Korean summit. By looking at the modern reporting of these two important events under two different political administrations, we can better understand how the relationship of press, government, and society has transformed and come to affect reporting and information dissemination today. This research helps to demystify Korean press’s modern operational practices, contributing to the growing literature regarding the politicization of the press and the proliferation of bias in media.

Victoria Vardanega is a native Californian who graduated from Pomona College with a double
major in Asian Studies and Economics. She developed her interest in the Korean peninsula through experiences that include receiving the State Department’s Critical Language Scholarship in Korean in 2015, and studying abroad at Yonsei University in Seoul. This passion for Korean Studies culminated in a college thesis on how the rapid economic growth of South Korea during the latter half of the twentieth century distorted the historical narratives of the period. Following the Fulbright, she plans to go on to pursue graduate school in international affairs in the DC area.

Fulbright Forum – February 22, 2019

Hyemin Na

Branding the Sacred: Megachurch Media Practices in Global Korea

Religious communities incorporate digital technology into existing meaning-making processes. As people tune into the weekly online worship services, click around Youtube channels with spiritual content, check for notices in their church apps, and receive tweets from religious leaders, they not only interact with text but their religious experience and digital practices are forged through images and design. In fact, perhaps more than texts, the aesthetic formulations of their digital content may be as formative as the verbal or textual message. There is a long tradition of religious communities negotiating constructions of the sacred through visual aesthetics means.

In this presentation, I provide an overview of how digital media producers of an influential megachurch in Korea create the church’s visual culture to brand their identity and message. I share preliminary insights from ongoing fieldwork to explore the ways globalization, market logics, and phenomena of hypermediation intersect within a specific Protestant congregation. In particular, I offer my research as a case study to explore how the branding enterprise occurs within broader social fields of racial ideologies.

Hyemin Na is a PhD candidate in Religion at Emory University. She is affiliated with the Division of Theology at Hyupsung University as a 2018-2019 Fulbright Junior Researcher. Hyemin studies Christianity through the lens of postcolonial scholarship. Her research interests also include the intersection of religion and media.