Remembering Itaewon: Reflections on the Past and the Present

 

Following Mourning Itaewon: Korean Diaspora Speaks in 2022, the CSK organized Remembering Itaewon: Reflections on the Past and the Present to reflect on the tragic Halloween crowd crush that had taken many young lives. This year, we focus on the significance of Itaewon in Korea’s contemporary history, from the site of a U.S. military base to the site of multiculturalism and globalization. The panelists discussed how such history influences the political and public reactions to the crowd crush

 

 

Kim Ji Youn is a Senior Researcher in the Migration Humanities Research Project at the Institute of Humanities, Hansung University in South Korea. Currently, she teaches classes on contemporary issues in Korean society, urban issues, mobility, and migration from an anthropological and sociological perspective. Since her Ph.D. thesis on Itaewon, she has continued to research issues of multiculturalism, gentrification, and the spatialization of otherness centered on Itaewon. As an urban sociologist, her works interrogate the normative notions of urbanity, community, migration, and social minorities.

 

Mihye Cho is Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and Director of the Master Program in Inter-Asia NGO Studies at SungKongHoe University and Research Fellow at the Institute of Inter-Cultural Studies, Seoul National University. Her research interests include citizen subjectivity, urban studies, and cultural studies. Her current research explores valuation and social resilience in the process of social transformation. Her monograph, Entrepreneurial Seoulite: Culture and Subjectivity in Hongdae, Seoul (Michigan University Press, 2019), examines citizen subjectivity in the midst of restructuring processes following the financial crisis. Her co-edited book, Creative Ageing Cities: Urban Design with Older People in High-Density Asian Cities (Routledge, 2018), investigates the intersection of aging, citizen subjectivity, and place-making in Asian cities. Her recent articles include "Seoul 2022" (Streetnotes, 2023), "'Smart Nation’ and ‘Social Acceleration’: Imagining ‘Urban Kampung’ in Singapore, (Korean Association of Southeast Asian Studies, 2022), and "Quality of Life and Diverse Temporalities amid Fast Urbanism" (Asian Journal of Social Science, 2020).

 

Sohyeon Peik is a freelance researcher based in Seoul, South Korea. She graduated Sungkonghoe University with a bachelor’s degree in Sociology and minors in Chinese Studies and Inter-Asia Cultural Studies. Her main studies during undergraduate were focused on history and peace issues in East Asia. They led her interest to state violence, war and memory, post-memory, and grievability. After Itaewon Halloween tragedy, occurred in her senior year, she started interviewing young people about their experiences of the incident and “surviving feelings” that was growing among the youth. She is currently working on the research paper about Itaewon tragedy and ‘survived youth’ based on the interview documentation. She also dealt with the issue in her recent article, "Seoul 2022" (Streetnotes, 2023) by drawing.

 

(Chair) Sherry S. Yu is Associate Professor in the Department of Arts, Culture and Media, and the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto. She holds a Ph.D. in Communication from Simon Fraser University. Her research explores multiculturalism, media, and social integration. She is the author of Diasporic Media beyond the Diaspora: Korean Media in Vancouver and Los Angeles (2018, UBC Press) and the co-editor of Ethnic Media in the Digital Age (2019, Routledge) and The Handbook of Ethnic Media in Canada (forthcoming, McGill-Queen’s University Press). Her research also has been published in scholarly journals such as Journalism: Theory, Practice & Criticism, Journalism Studies, Television & New Media, Canadian Journal of Communication, Journal of Global Diaspora & Media, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, and Canadian Ethnic Studies.