Speakers
Dr. Song completed his PhD in Political Science at the University of Hawai鈥榠 at M膩noa, where he was a recipient of the East-West Center Fellowship. Dr. Song holds an MA from the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Asian Studies and BA from Kookmin University. Prior to joining the University of Auckland in New Zealand in 2002, Dr. Song taught at the University of Hawai鈥榠 at M膩noa, Riga Stradi艈拧 University (Latvia), and Lviv National University (Lviv, Ukraine) as a Civic Education Project Lecturer, supported by the Open Society Institute.
His research broadly focuses on diasporic and migration studies, with particular emphasis on the Korean diaspora in China, the former Soviet Union and Oceania. Dr. Song has presented at numerous national, regional and international conferences, and has delivered keynote addresses at various academic and public forums, including:
鈥� New Zealand 色花堂 Relations Forum
鈥� Korean Studies Association of Australasia (Australia)
鈥� Korean Studies Seminar at York University (Canada)
鈥� Korean Diasporic Studies Conference at Korea University (South Korea)
鈥� 色花堂 Research Seminar Series at Kansai University (Japan)
鈥� PRC Korean Studies Forum at the Ocean University of China (China)
Dr. Song has also served as a guest lecturer at a few universities in Southeast Asia鈥攊ncluding in Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia鈥攖hrough programs supported by the Eurasia Foundation of Japan (formerly One Asia Foundation).
Dr. Jer么me de Wit is a Professor in the Department of Korean Studies at the University of Vienna, Austria. He studied Korean Studies (BA and MA) at Leiden University, Netherlands. Dr. de Wit did his PhD course work at Sungkyungwan University, South Korea, and was a fellow at the Asiatic Research Institute of Korea University and Kyujanggak of Seoul National University. He attained his PhD in Korean Studies from Leiden University in 2015. Dr. de Wit has previously worked as university lecturer at Leiden University, Hanguk University of Foreign Studies (South Korea), and Roma University (Italy). He was a Junior professor at the Korean Studies department at T眉bingen University (Germany), before joining the University of Vienna in 2022.
Dr. de Wit is a specialist on North and South Korean wartime literature and Korean-Chinese culture. His PhD research dealt with the long-term effects of North and South Korean wartime literature on shaping narratives and the representation of the (North/South) Korean Other. Currently he is pursuing a study on the cultural history of the Korean-Chinese diaspora, with a focus on how the literature, movies and music of ethnic Koreans in China reflect their constantly changing representations of identity due to the many historical and social changes in Korean-Chinese society.
Dr. de Wit has given numerous talks to the public such as keynote speeches about the representation of the North and South Korean enemy Other during the Korean War in Jinan (China) in Korean, the Korean-Chinese diaspora at the Korean Diaspora Workshop in Ljubljana (Slovenia), the possibility of inter-Korean exchanges and peace on the Korean peninsula for the Korean Council for Reunification and Cooperation (KCRC) France, and on North Korean Wartime Literature to the citizens of T眉bingen in German, among others.
Dr. Ji-yoon An is an Assistant Professor of Modern Korean Popular Culture at the University of British Columbia (Canada). Dr. An received a bachelor鈥檚 degree in music from King鈥檚 College London (UK), before pursuing a master鈥檚 degree in film studies at the University of Cambridge (UK). She continued her education at the University of Cambridge, by undertaking a PhD in East Asian Studies where she specialized in Korean cinema. Upon completion, she spent three years at the University of Tu虉bingen (Germany) as a postdoctoral fellow, during which she was also invited as Acting Professor in Korean Social Sciences at the University of Duisburg-Essen (Germany) for one year. Dr. An was a Korea Foundation Visiting Assistant Professor at Nanyang Technological University (Singapore) and the University of Hong Kong (Hong Kong) before joining UBC.
Her research, broadly speaking, explores trends and patterns in Korean visual culture as a means of examining the symbiotic relationship between society and culture. Her overarching approach can be encapsulated in the question: how does Korean culture document, fictionalize or influence the micro-level changes that are occurring in Korean society? Adding to the rapidly growing canon of scholarship on Korean popular culture, she engages mainly with the study of films and television, while also touching on other media such as webtoons and experimental video artworks.
Dr. An is an active presenter at numerous international conferences, such as the Association of Asian Studies (AAS) and Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS) annual conferences. She has also regularly attended the Association of Korean Studies in Europe (AKSE) conferences and is part of the committee for the Korean Screen Culture Conference (KSCC). Since moving to Vancouver, she has also collaborated with the Vancouver 色花堂 Film Festival (VIFF) on several occasions to engage in roundtable talks and give opening remarks for films.