For Readings and Seminar Schedule, please visit the following link to the website of the Graduate School of East Asian Studies: http://www.geas.fu-berlin.de/studium/Doctoral_Program/semesterplaene/schedule_summer_16/9.html close

History and memory matters. In East Asian context, history and collective memories have significant roles not only for a specific generation and community groups but also in domestic politics and international relations. This seminar will address several topics which are important to understand Korean society through socio-historical perspective. Two time period frames are especially important in this seminar. Colonial period and the Cold War or post-Cold War period. Memories of colonial rule, war and cold war confrontation, democratization, social movement, inter-Korean cooperation, post-war memory politics on monuments would be those issues covered by this seminar. For the colonial time frame, this seminar will focus on the specific nature and activities of the colonial government, which is a censorship activities. Censorship studies not only trace historical events, but also deal with its institutional legacies and implications to understand state/society relations and nature of colonial power in comparative perspective. Another topic, belong to the colonial period is related to the issue of health politics. Specific diseases were dealt by colonial power to isolate and control specific population. This activities reveals multi-dimensional power relationships between experts, bureaucrats, administration and scientific knowledges thus shows how health politics during the colonial times shows specific and general nature of modern state power. The second time frame of this seminar is the Cold War period. Collective and individual memories produced during this time period is very significant and dynamic. Korean War memorial is still important issue in domestic politics and inter-Korean relations, memories of democratization, especially concerning Kwangju is connected to memory politics in Korean society. Memories of democratization and rapid social transformation of South Korea provided context where many related academic research emerged. Specific site and location, such as Gaesong industrial complex left meaningful social memories for the on-going Cold War in Korean peninsular, and Cold War borders became an important sites of tourism in East Asia. The issue of the Cold War memory is not an issue of East Asia, but also have global comparative dimension, considering importance of memorials and museums of former Soviet Armies. By exploring several research topics, the ultimate aim of this seminar is to introduce socio-historical approaches to broaden and deepen our understanding on Korean contemporary society. close

For Readings and Seminar Schedule, please visit the following link to the website of the Graduate School of East Asian Studies: http://www.geas.fu-berlin.de/studium/Doctoral_Program/semesterplaene/schedule_summer_16/9.html close