The popular uprisings of March 1, 1919, on the Korean peninsula marked a foundational moment in the history of both South Korea and North Korea. The above photo shows Korean immigrants’ parade in Dinuba, California, on the first anniversary of the March 1 movement. The University of Southern California and its Korean Studies Institute have special ties to this event. The KSI is housed in the family residence of Ahn Chang Ho, a leader of the colonial Korean independence movement, while USC’s Korean Heritage Library preserves the historical archives of the Korean National Association (1909-1988), a political organization that represented the perspectives of the Korean diaspora.
In spring, the March 1st Symposium on History and Democracy brings together some of the most distinguished scholars in history, the humanities, and the social sciences. The symposium aims to critically reflect on established paradigms in light of new and emerging methodologies. In Spring 2025, our inaugural conference will bear the title “Colonial Koreans Across Linguistic and National Boundaries.”
Under this intiative, KSI may also organize occasional year-round guest lectures, panels, and screenings that explore the political, social, and cultural dynamics of both Koreas and the Korean diaspora.
Event Highlight
Korean Americans and US-Korea Relations
Friday, April 17
Tutor Campus Center 450
We successfully hosted the second annual March 1st Symposium, titled “Korean America and the US-Korea Relations.” Through this symposium, we examined the historical and contemporary relationship between Korea and the United States, with particular attention to the Korean diaspora in Los Angeles. Korean migration to the United States began shortly after the two countries established diplomatic ties in 1882, and by the early twentieth century Korean communities had taken root in Hawai’i and California. Korean Americans played a key role in the Korean independence movement during the period of Japanese colonial rule (1910-1945), and they contributed as activists and as soldiers to the U.S. military effort during WWII. Today, Korean Americans continue to shape political, economic, and cultural developments to both their ancestral land and their home country.
Bringing together regional as well as national experts, this event illuminated a more nuanced understanding of the place of Korean Americans within the interwoven histories of the two nations, in the process also deepening our knowledge of national histories themselves. Along with scholarly panels, the symposium featured a roundtable of youth activists from Los Angeles’s Korean American community, seeking to identify policy concerns and future directions in light of both history and current conditions. Please see the full program Link to the program. Also see the updated abstracts and participants’ bios.
This symposium was organized by USC’s Korean Studies Institute and sponsored by the Korea Foundation, UCLA’s Center for Korean Studies, and USC Libraries Korean Heritage Library.
Past Events
Joint Book Talk on South Korean Social Activism by Jennifer Jihye Chun and Ju Hui Judy Han
Wednesday, April 8, 3:00-4:50 pm
Ahn House
Professors Jennifer Chun (UCLA, Asian American Studies) Judy Han (UCLA, Gender Studies) will discuss their latest books, Against Abandonment: Repertoires of Solidarity in South Korean Protest and Queer Throughlines: Spaces of Queer Activism in South Korea and the Korean Diaspora. Against Abandonment. Against Abandonment is an ethnographic study of the widespread culture of protest in South Korea that examines both its significant achievements and inherent precarity. And Queer Throughlines offers a rare account of the transnational Koran LGBTQ+ activist movement since the 1990s with a specific focus on its intersections with various other social movements.
The event is co-sponsored by the Consortium for Gender, Sexuality, Race and Public Culture, the Gender and Sexuality Studies Department, East Asian Studies Center, and the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures. RSVP here.
March 25th, 2025
Doheny Memorial Library (DML), 240
This conference seeks to broaden and integrate existing historical accounts of colonial Korea (1910–1945) with an understanding of Korean diasporic experiences in countries such as the United States, China, and Japan. Bringing together leading scholars of both colonial Korea and early Korean America, the gathering will provoke reflection on personal experiences in the era of global imperialism on both sides of the Pacific. Inspired in part by the publication of Kim San and Nym Wales’ Song of Arirang, conference speakers will address a diverse range of topics, including the transpacific critical reimagining of Korean history, the contributions of diasporic activism to the domestic independence movement, and the effects of colonization on the development of a Korean American identity.
For full conference schedule and panelist bios, click here. See also abstracts and its video trailer.
Namhee Lee – Democracy and the Discourse of De-democratization in Post-1987 South Korea
🕗 November 13, 2024
📍 Doheny Memorial Library (DML), 240
While South Korea successfully transitioned from nearly four decades of authoritarian rule to a parliamentary democracy, the high-level political democratization of post-1987 was also enmeshed with all-out neoliberal restructuring following the 1997 financial crisis. The consequent deepening of inequality and poverty, leading to extreme polarization of the society, along with disappointments with political reform, has resulted in the widespread sense of defeat and pessimism embodied in the discourse of “de-democratization;” that is, despite the hegemony of democratic rhetoric and political democratization, democracy in South Korea is in crisis.
This presentation argues that despite the widespread despair, a broad spectrum of civil society has made equally determined and vociferous efforts to demand and work for democratization in all spheres of life. It explores the political horizons and social imaginaries of these movements, which compel rethinking the meaning of democracy and broadening the existing concept of social movements.
