At the K-Future Team, our work revolves around two central research aims. The first is to explore new theoretical resources essential for 21st-century Korean studies. The second is to analyze diverse signs or symptoms that point toward the emerging futures of Korean social realities.
In pursuit of theoretical inquiry, we organize a 'Theory Atelier (이론아뜰리에)' in collaboration with scholars engaged in diverse intellectual traditions. This setting seeks to foster a dynamic interface between theory and Korean studies. Concerning future-oriented research, our team members identify pivotal cases that may shape Korea’s multiple futures. These cases are examined through a combination of field-based investigations and interpretive case studies grounded in close readings of texts, employing methods rooted in the hermeneutics of signs and symptoms.
The overarching goal of the K-Future Team’s collective research endeavor is twofold. Theoretically, it aims to integrate a wide array of intellectual experiments developed across the humanities and social sciences over the past four decades into the field of Korean studies. Institutionally and epistemologically, it seeks to reorient Korean studies—long centered on the past and national identity—toward questions of present relevance and future possibility.