Transpacific Linkage in Korean Diaspora Studies

Session Submission Type: Organized Panel Proposal Application

Abstract

The field of diaspora studies that arose in the wake of globalization in the 1990s has introduced a comparative and transnational perspective to immigration and ethnic studies. However, the literature on Korean diaspora studies carries a critical inquiry on discourse that extends beyond national boundaries, and fails to develop a linkage between the differing aspects of Korean Diasporas. This session is thus interested in exploring the histories, memories, and subjectivities of the Korean Diaspora and will attempt to develop a theoretical and analytical linkage between the issues of the Korean Diasporas in the Asia and Pacific region. This panel asks the following questions:

1. How do the people of Korean Diasporas make sense of their belonging? What kind of political rhetoric and symbolism prevailed, and what are the issues involved in Korean Diaspora Studies, including any historical, intellectual or methodological problems?
2. What kind of issues have been alienated from Korean Diaspora Studies? How can we examine a population that has developed new horizons and extend beyond national boundaries? What are the agendas and hopes of Korea Diaspora Studies today?

This panel consists of three papers, and will be attended by two discussants. In order to encourage dialogue between the panelist, discussants and the audience, this panel will leave plenty of time for Q&A.

Area of Study

• Interarea-Border Crossing-Diaspora

Session Organizer

• Rika Lee, Tama Art University

Chair

• Jesook Song, University of Toronto

Individual Presentations

• Creating Lives in Perpetual State of Exception in (post)Colonial Japan - Kyung Hee Ha, University of California, San Diego

• Transpacific Linkage in Korean Diaspora Studies: Narratives on Statelessness among Koreans in prewar Hawai’i and postwar Japan - Rika Lee, Tama Art University

• Everyday Living in Dual Reality: The Articulated Identity and Silent Affinity of Korean Immigrants in the San Francisco Bay Area - Sachiko Kawakami, Kyoto University of Foreign Studies

Discussants

• Jesook Song, University of Toronto

• Hideki Harajiri, Ritsumeikan University