KORE Event | Korean-Canadian Studies in a Comparative Context: Local and Global Connections

Work on the Korean diaspora and migration in Canada goes back roughly 30 years and recent scholarship on Korean migrants in Canada signals the emergence of a new generation of scholars. However, a cohesive identity with a well-defined collection and network under this umbrella has yet to materialize. Two current developments provide us with an opportune moment to explore Korean-Canadian Studies in an open, flexible, interdisciplinary, and collaborative way: the widening range of scholars across multiple disciplines in Canada who might identify as working in this area; and a growing body of work on the Korean diaspora in other places, such as the United States, China, and Russia. This symposium examines and explores the fluidity of boundaries of Korean diaspora research in Canada and abroad.
2pm Keynote Speaker: Changzoo Song, University of Auckland, New Zealand
Recent Studies on Joseonjok [Koreans in China] and Gryeo Saram [Soviet Koreans]: Reflections and Future Directions
3:15pm Panel One: Korean diaspora scholarship in the US and Canada
This panel continues the discussion on Korean diaspora scholarship with a focus on Korean-American Studies and Korean-Canadian Studies. Panelists will highlight key themes and findings, and suggest directions for future work.
4:30pm Panel Two: Interdisciplinary research snapshots on Korean-Canadians
This panel provides a snapshot of recent research on Korean-Canadians and showcases the growing array of themes and disciplines (Languages and Linguistics, English, Social Work, and Sociology).
The full programme is available here.
All are welcome!
This event is presented by the Korea in the World, the World in Korean Studies project, part of the Korean Office for Research and Education (KORE) at York University. It is funded by the Academy of Korean Studies with support from the York Centre for Asian Research and the Department of Sociology.
For more information: kore@yorku.ca

KEYNOTE
Recent Studies on Joseonjok and Goryeo Saram: Reflections and Future Direction
Changzoo Song is Senior Lecturer in Asian/Korean Studies at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. He received his PhD in Political Studies from the University of Hawai’i at Manoa, and his research interests include Korean diasporic identity and culture, ethnic return migrations of the Joseonjok and Goryeo Saram, and Korean immigrant children and youths of New Zealand. His recent works include Diasporic Returns to the Ethnic Homeland: The Korean Diaspora in Comparative Perspective (2018, co-edited with Takeyuki Gaku Tsuda) and “Kimchi, Seaweed and Seasoned Carrot in the Soviet Culinary Culture: The Spread of Korean Food in the Soviet Union and Korean Diaspora” Journal of Ethnic Foods (2016, vol. 3, no. 1: 78-84).
PANEL ONE: Korean diaspora Scholarship in the US and Canada
Liminal Minorities in a Global Era: Reflections on the State of Korean American Studies
Angie Y. Chung is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University at Albany. She has served as Visiting Professor at Yonsei and Korea University and the 2016 Dr. Thomas Tam Visiting Scholar at CUNY Graduate Center and Asian American/ Asian Research Institute (AAARI). She is author of Saving Face: The Emotional Costs of the Asian Immigrant Family Myth (Rutgers University Press, 2016) and Legacies of Struggle: Conflict and Cooperation in Korean American Politics (Stanford University Press, 2007). She is currently preparing a book with co-PIs Sookhee Oh and Jan Lin for a National Science Foundation-funded project on immigrant redevelopment politics in Koreatown and Monterey Park. Chung has published on the topics of ethnic politics, interethnic coalitions, immigrant families, ethnic enclaves, international students and second generation in various journals.
Historical Overview, Themes and Trends of Korean-Canadian Studies
Min-Jung Kwak is an economic and social geographer with broad research interests in immigration and settlement studies. She has conducted research on international education industry, immigrant entrepreneurship, and transnational migrant family experiences. She has worked with various immigrant groups in major Canadian cities but more closely with Korean-Canadian communities. For example, her current research focuses on healthcare accessibility issues among Korean immigrants in Halifax.
Twice a Refugee? North Korean Asylum-seeking Families in Canada
Ann Kim is Associate Professor of Sociology and Faculty Associate of the York Centre for Asian Research. She leads the Korea in the World, the World in Korea cluster on Korean-Canadian Studies.
PANEL TWO: Interdisciplinary research snapshots on Korean-Canadians
Contested Meaning of “Canada” in Search for Global English Capital among Korean Educational Migrants
Hyunjung Shin is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Curriculum Studies, College of Education at the University of Saskatchewan. Her research centres on globalization, neoliberalism and second language education; language and migration; language, culture and identity; and critical pedagogy and decolonizing education with related articles appearing in multiple international journals and international handbooks. Her current work focuses on internationalization of higher education and student mobility focusing on Korean-Canadian students, language policy for refugee settlements in the new economy, truth and reconciliation, and newcomer education.
Beyond the “Melodramatic Blur”: the Past, Present, and Future of Korean-Canadian Literary Study
Angie Min Ah Park is a second-year doctoral student in English and a YCAR associate. Her dissertation project, tentatively titled “Hyphenated and Whole: Forms, Aesthetics and Sociology of Korean-Canadian and Global Korean Literatures,” examines poetry, fiction, drama and essay writings by Korean-Canadian diasporic writers since the 1970s and analyzes their literary and cultural forms in comparison to modern literatures of Korea and the global Korean diaspora.
Exploring Multiculturalism in the Terrain of the Settler Imaginary
Sangyoo Lee is a PhD student in the School of Social Work at York University. Her research interests span critical multiculturalism and Indigenous-settler solidarity.