On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Republic of Korea and the European Union, the University of Leuven (KU Leuven) Center for Korean Studies, in cooperation with the Korea Foundation for International Culture Exchange (KOFICE) and the Korean Cultural Center in Brussels (KCC Brussels), invites paper proposals for the international symposium ‘Before, Behind and Beyond the Wave: Korean Popular Culture in Perspective’ on Friday 24 November 2023 in Leuven, Belgium.
While the phenomenon of the ‘Korean Wave’ (Hallyu) has recently attracted a great amount of media and academic attention, this symposium aims to shed light on three relatively under-investigated aspects of Korea’s popular culture through the following sessions:
- Session #1, Before the Wave: This session has a twofold objective: to identify older forms of Korean popular culture that existed before the onset of the Korean Wave phenomenon (late 1990s-early 2000s) and to examine the continuities and discontinuities between these older forms and the current Korean Wave. Disciplines: Art History, Cultural History, Cultural Studies, Performance Studies, Media Studies, etc.
- Session #2, ‘Behind the Wave’: This session aims to shed light on what is usually kept out of the spotlight by providing a behind-the-scenes look at forgotten, hidden or under-researched aspects of the current Korean Wave. Disciplines: Sociology, Anthropology, Media Studies,
- Session #3, ‘Beyond the Wave’: This prospective session can be regarded as both a literary and reflection exercise on the question: what next? It is an open invitation to imagine what the Korean Wave will be like in the coming years. This session is open to writers and artists who are invited to submit a short text – (science-) fiction, essay, poem, comic strip, etc. – on this theme in Korean or in English. The selected texts will be read by their authors during this session.
Travel expenses (within Europe) and accommodation costs (2 nights in Belgium) will be covered for all selected speakers.
