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2026 SNU International Conference for Contemporary Korean Studies

 

Date: August 21-22, 2026

Location: Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea

 

Korea as Method

 

The SNU Institute for Contemporary Korean Studies is pleased to announce the 2026 Annual International Conference, to be held at Seoul National University in the summer of 2026. Building on the continued success of this conference series, the event aims to provide a vibrant interdisciplinary forum for critical scholarship on Korea and beyond.

 

This year’s theme, Korea as Method, invites participants to move beyond treating Korea merely as an empirical case or regional object of study. Instead, the conference proposes Korea as a methodological, theoretical, and epistemic lens through which broader social, political, economic, cultural, and historical configurations and relations can be rethought and rearticulated.

 

The notion of “Korea as Method” raises several critical questions: How can Korea serve not only as an object of analysis but also as a source of concepts, comparisons, and critiques? What kinds of theoretical insights emerge when Korean historical experiences—such as colonization and division, developmentalism and democratization, authoritarianism and social movements, as well as the global circulation of Korean popular culture in the context of digital transformation—are taken seriously as generative sites of knowledge production? How might Korean cases unsettle dominant theoretical frameworks or contribute to alternative ways of understanding modernity, capitalism, democracy, statehood, identity, and culture?

 

By foregrounding Korea as a methodological vantage point, this conference seeks to foster conversations that are both grounded in Korean realities and oriented toward broader comparative and global debates. We particularly encourage contributions that reflect on methodological innovation, theoretical translation, comparative strategies, and epistemic reflexivity in contemporary Korean studies.

 

We welcome submissions that engage with, but are not limited to, the following themes:

 

• Korea as a site of theory-building and conceptual innovation
• Methodological reflections in Korean studies: comparison, translation, and contextualization
• Rethinking modernity, capitalism, and development through Korean experiences
• Democracy, authoritarianism, and political transformation in comparative perspective
• State, citizenship, and governance in and beyond Korea
• Korean social movements, labor, and civil society as comparative reference points
• Gender, family, and reproduction in Korea as global questions
• Religion, spirituality, and ethics in Korean contexts
• Cultural production, media, and popular culture as analytical lenses
• Digitalization, platform economies, and technological change in Korea
• Epistemological debates in area studies and global knowledge production

 

Other themes relevant to contemporary Korean studies are also welcome.

 

Language

The official languages of the conference are English and Korean. Abstracts must be submitted in English. Interpretation services will be available during the conference as needed.

 

Live Streaming and Recording

The conference proceedings will be recorded for archival purposes and may be made available on the Institute’s website. Selected sessions may also be live-streamed via YouTube. If you prefer not to be recorded or included in the live stream, please indicate this in your submission.

 

Registration Fee

There is no registration fee for this conference. Limited financial support may be available for graduate studentpresenters. 

 

Submission Types

• Individual Papers: 15-20 minute presentations
• Panels: 3-5 papers plus a discussant and a chair

 

Word Limits

• Panel abstracts: 250 words (accompanied by 3-5 individual paper abstracts of 200 words each and short bios of the presenters)
• Paper abstracts: 200 words (accompanied by a short bio of the presenter; only one paper presentation is allowed per person)

 

Submission Deadline

Please submit panel and paper abstracts by March 10, 2026, to the following email address: snucks2026@gmail.com

 

The program committee will notify applicants of acceptance decisions by April 5, 2026. 

 

For further information or inquiries, please contact the organizing committee at the same email address. We look forward to receiving your submissions and to welcoming scholars from diverse disciplines and perspectives to the conference.