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Call for Conference Papers
Reflections on the North: the Spaces and Subjects of the DPRK
Centre for Korean Studies
The University of Sheffield
3-4 April 2025
The Centre for Korean Studies at the University of Sheffield seeks works for a conference titled: “Reflections on the North,” funded by the AKS Core Grant Programme.
This conference explores the theme of reflection as it relates to North Korea. We approach the term in two ways. In the nominal sense, reflections are congregations of work. Whether literary, academic, or artistic, this sort of reflection attends to the state of the archive on North Korea. As a verb, reflection is an act of mediation. In this regard, reflection is a question of the methods and modes used to analyse and articulate North Korean pasts and presents. How do we reflect on North Korea and how have decades of reflection by others shaped these engagements? This event seeks to bring together academic, literary, and artistic submissions to critically and reflectively engage with both of these invocations of the term. We invite works that attend to the ways that knowledge about North Korea is generated and circulated. In particular, we encourage critical engagements with the spaces and subjects that constitute North Korea. Not to confuse reflection on the North with abstraction, we seek to centre the individuals and encounters, topographies and infrastructures that constitute everyday life in North Korea. In doing so, this event invites participants to consider the many reflections on the North in the hope of developing new avenues of approach, analysis and narration.
The conference is designed to be a venue for a variety of academic and artistic projects dealing with North Korea. We welcome submissions from Korean Studies scholars at any career level, including PhD students, post-doctoral scholars and established academics. Papers from any discipline are encouraged. Particularly those that touch broadly on any of the themes below:
Methodological Challenges in North Korean Studies: Discussing themes of translation, ethnography, and the place of agency in research on North Korea.
Narratives of the Self: Analysing literary and artistic representations of political subjectivity, solidarity and division.
Global Circulation of Knowledge: Investigating global patterns of knowledge production and circulation on North Korea.
The Art of Reflection: Artistic and literary depictions of North Korea, exploring how creative works reflect and shape our understanding of North Korean society and politics.
The Role of Institutions: Reflecting on the academic, state, and market frameworks that shape discourse on North Korea.
Archives and Research: Addressing the potentials and challenges of archival research on North Korea and the development of digital archives.
The Turn to the “Everyday” in North Korean Studies: Consideration of the recent focus on everyday life and mundane experience in North Korean scholarship and journalism.
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Venue and Dates:
The University of Sheffield, UK
Thursday 3 April - Friday 4 April 2025
The cost of accommodation in Sheffield will be covered for successful applicants travelling from outside Sheffield.
Schedule:
Wednesday April 2: Arrival and check-in
Thursday April 3: Conference (full day)
Friday April 4: Conference (full day)
Saturday April 5: Depart Sheffield
Application and submission of abstracts:
Applicants should submit the following information by email to cks@sheffield.ac.uk by the deadline of Monday, 18th November, 2024.
Presentations at the conference should be in English. While we do not request full paper submissions, we will ask you to submit your PPT presentation by Monday 31st March.
Application period
The deadline for submissions is Monday, 18th November, 2024.
We will contact all participants by the end of November regarding acceptance of their applications.
