The K-Future Team of the Center for Contemporary Korean Studies invites you to a colloquium with Professor Valérie Gelézeau.

• Title: (Back to the) Future Fieldwork – tapsa and haptic methods in contemporary Korean Studies

• Speaker: Prof. Valérie Gelézeau (Research Professor, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, France)

• Date & Time: Friday, May 9, 2025, 4:00–6:00 PM

• Venue: Room 501, IBK Communication Center (Bldg. 64), Seoul National University

• Language: English

Abstract:

How can we reflect on K-Future methodologically? In this lecture, I will discuss my current research project on “post- and meta-urban Korea” through its frameworks and methods, after three decades of shaping the contours of my ethnographic practice and critically reflecting on fieldwork. My scholarly journey has centered on questioning “Korean space” as a social construct, with people at its core, from the perspective of cultural geography as “situated knowledge” grounded in fieldwork.
The analysis of Korean apartment culture, engaged research on North Korean cities, and investigations of “life on the lines” at border regions have each generated distinct methodological experiences. Building on these, I now propose to experiment with methods that include sensitivity and the “haptic regime of knowledge,” which may contribute to developing a cultural geography attuned to the “new normal” of our societies.

Short Bio:
Valérie Gelézeau is a cultural geographer and Koreanologist, Professor at EHESS (Paris, France). She is the author of Seoul, ville géante, cités radieuses (2003), based on her doctoral dissertation on Seoul’s apartment complexes, which was awarded the Garnier Prize of the French Geographical Society. Her works include Doing Fieldwork in North Korea (2021, with Joinau), De-bordering Korea: Tangible and Intangible Legacies of the Sunshine Policy (2013, with De Ceuster and Delissen), and Séoul, mégapole (2011). The Korean edition of her book, Ap’at’ŭ konghwaguk (The Republic of Apartments, Humanitas, 2007), was recognized as a “recommended reference in the social sciences” by the Korean Ministry of Culture. She recently directed the project North Korean City (https://citynkor.hypotheses.org/). Gelézeau received the CNRS Bronze Medal in 2005 and the France–Korea Cultural Prize in 2008. From 2019 to 2024, she served as Director of the Centre for the Study of China, Korea, and Japan at EHESS.
Full CV
https://cv.hal.science/valerie-gelezeau

We warmly welcome the participation of all interested colleagues.

Contact:
Yong-rae Jung, Research Assistant
📧 jyongr422@snu.ac.kr