The K-Future Team of the Institute for Korean Studies at Seoul National University invites you to a colloquium with Professor Minwoo Jung from Loyola University Chicago.
Title: The Queer Politics of the Wounded: Reparation Work and Queer Youth Activism in Korea
Speaker: Prof. Minwoo Jung (Department of Sociology, Loyola University Chicago)
Date & Time: Monday, September 29, 2025, 4:00–6:00 PM
Venue: Room 501, IBK Communication Center (Bldg. 64), Seoul National University
Lecture Overview:
How do communities shaped by structural harm respond to collective wounds and emerge as political subjects? How can a queer politics of the wounded move beyond the logic of pain and ressentiment? In addressing these questions, I introduce the concept of reparation work and explore its application through the case of LGBTQ+ student activism in South Korea.
Drawing on feminist, queer, and postcolonial theoretical frameworks, I examine how institutionalized homophobia not only wounds queer youth but also paradoxically contributes to their political subjectivation. I then analyze how queer students transform social wounds into sites of reparation—from everyday practices like the Band-Aid Campaign, to more organized efforts that challenge heteronormative campus politics.
Through reparation work, queer youth activists confront wounded pasts, contest injurious structures, and imagine livable queer futures. Ultimately, I propose reparation work as an analytical framework for expanding the horizon of queer youth politics and struggles for social justice across and beyond Asia.
Contact:
Yong-rae Jung, Research Assistant