Genre, Gender, and Language in Korean Film & Drama
The inaugural Korean Studies symposium at UB examined a wide range of topics in Korean film and television, including sexuality, LGBTQ representation, translation, violence, and popular productions like Squid Game and Parasite.
Symposium Agenda
Tuesday, April 11
8:00 - 9:00 PM Keynote 1: Matt Salesses
K- Drama Literary Reading with Matt Salesses in Conversation with Kelly Rich
Introduction by Margaret Rhee
Opening Remarks by Senior Associate Vice Provost John Wood
9:15 - 10:15 pm Session 1: Queer and Feminist Reinterpretations in Korean Film and Drama
Dayeon Jung, Seoul National University
Miss, How Could Such an Innocent… You Must Be a Natural: Three Sex Scenes in The Handmaiden and Erotic Cinema in South Korea
Jeongon Choi, University of Oregon
Tune the Korean Television to Working Girls: Revisiting Kim Su-hyŏn’ s Melodramas on Television
Jeferson Martins, Hanyang University
The Invisible Korean Queer Films of Park Chung-hee' s Era: Between Censorship, Resistance and Dictatorship
Thursday, April 13
Location: SQUEAKY WHEEL FILM & MEDIA CENTER
6:00 - 8:00 PM Screening: Waikiki Brothers (2001), Directed by Yim Soon- rye
Opening Remarks by UB Vice Provost for International Education Nojin Kwak
8:00 - 9:00 PM Keynote 2 : Molly Hyo Kim
Molly Hyo Kim, Hanyang University
Korean Cinema and The Single Woman: Korean Women Filmmakers through Yim Soon-rye
Q&A with Margaret Rhee and Ekrem Serdar
Friday, April 14
Location: Capen 10, UB north campus
10:00 - 10:15 am Opening remarks
10:15 - 11:30 AM Session 2: North Korea and Netflix
Stephen J . Epstein, Victoria University (Wellington)
North Korea and Netflix: Gender, Genre and Language
Gongju Cha, Claremont Graduate University
Creating A Third Space: Transnational Korean Television Shows in the Digital Streaming Era (A Critical Reading of Sweet Home and Squid Game)
Yeojin Kim, Binghamton University
Media Identity in the Era of Pandemic: K-drama on Netflix
Amanda Wright, Ewha Womens University [virtual]
North Korean Defectors' in South Korean Media: Defectors' Thoughts on their Misrepresentation
11:30 - 11:45 AM Break
11:45 am - 1:00 pM Session 3: History, Korean Film, and Popular Culture
Michael Ormsbee, University of Rochester
My Heart and My Blood are in this Record: Contesting History in Hanjungrok, The Throne, and Secret Door
Jing Peng, Hong Kong University
Shaping South Korea and its Ties with Hong Kong in Film Co-productions during Height of Cold War, 1950s-1970s
Andy Lee, University of Pittsburgh
Korea’s Film Movement in the 1980s and Its Limited Praxis
Tanushri Banerjee [virtual]
The Art of Doing Nothing: A Study of "Healing" Genre in Korean Popular Culture
1:00 - 2:15 PM Lunch Break
2:15 - 3:00 PM Special Talk: Kwong Woo Noh
Moderated by Heum-mun Chung, Korea Nazarene University
3:00 - 3:15 pm: Break
3:15 - 4:30 pm Session 4: Romance, Gender, and K- Drama
Moderated by Robert Cagle, University of Illinois
David Oh, Ramapo College of New Jersey
Co-Production and the Ambivalent Korean Fantasy Romance in the "Ultimate Oppa"
Gunjan Gupta, Christ University (Bangalore) [virtual]
Representing Idyllic Country life in select Korean romance dramas: An Escape or Reality?
Millie Creighton, University of British Columbia
Gender, Genre, Genesis: Ideals of Masculinities and Society in Recent Korean Dramas
Jamie Hartford, University of Hawaii
Romanticization of Female Doctors’ Role in Medical Dramas: An Analysis of Dr. Romantic
4:30 - 4:45 pm: Break
4:45 - 5:45 pm Keynote 3: Joseph Jeon
Joseph Jeon, University at California, Irvine
Lines Left to Cross: Deglobalization and the Domestic Western in Bong Joon-ho’ s Parasite
Moderated by UB Vice Provost for International Education Nojin Kwak
Saturday, April 15
Location: Capen 240, UB North Campus
10:30 - 10:45 AM Opening Remarks
10:45 am - 12:00 pm Session 5: Queer and Feminist Film Reinterpretations 2
Narae Lee, Pratt Institute
Escaping Western Gaze in Understanding Korean Queer Film - Park Chan Wook’s "The Handmaiden"
Christina Klein, Boston College
Restoring the History of Korea’ s Female Directors: Shin Su-won’ s "Hommage" (2021)
Nilesh Kumar, Independent Director [virtual]
Anal Terror: Queering South Korean Heteronormative Patriarchal Confucianism through Gay Sex
Oriana Virone, Universite Libre de Bruxelles [virtual]
No Catfight but Fistfight: Lee Ji-won’ s Miss Baek’ s Representation of Female-to-Female Physical Violence
12:00 - 12:15 PM Break
12:15 - 1:15 PM Session 6: Korean Film, Language, Music, and Form
Moderated by Stephanie Choi, University at Buffalo
Gui Hwan Lee, Stony Brook University
Music as Decolonizing Agency in Bong Joon Ho’ s Urban-Fantasy Films: Case Studies from Host (2006) and Parasite (2019)
Nemo Kim, Independent Journalist
Creating "the 1-inch-tall barrier": Politics in South Korean Cinema
Franchesca Ulloa, Ohio State University
Creating “The 1-inch-Tall Barrier”: Politics of Subtitling in South Korean Cinema Calligraphy of Aegyo: Captioning Culture in Korean Television Entertainment
1:15 - 2:30 PM lunch Break
2:30 - 3:30 PM Keynote 4: Nam Lee
Nam Lee, Chapman University
The Emergence of Science Fiction in South Korean Cinema: From Bong Joon Ho’s The Host (2006) to Space Sweepers (2021) and Beyond
Moderated by Donte Mc Fadden, University at Buffalo
3:30 - 3:45 PM Break
3:45 - 4:45 PM Roundtable and Closing Discussion
Symposium Sponsors
UB Asia Research Institute; Academy of Korean Studies; Squeaky Wheel Film & Media Arts Center; Departments of Media Study, English, Global Gender & Sexuality Studies, Art, and Linguistics; Asian Studies Program; Global Film studies Minor Program; Gender Institute
