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

Lecture Overview:

How might we methodologically reflect on K-Future? In this lecture, I draw on over three decades of experience developing ethnographic methodologies, including critical reflections on fieldwork, to situate the ongoing research project “Post-urban and Meta-urban Korea” within a broader theoretical and methodological framework.

Approaching Korean space as a social construct centered around lived experience, I aim to share my intellectual journey of questioning Korean spatialities through the lens of cultural geography as situated knowledge, grounded in field-based inquiry. This perspective foregrounds people, place, and the co-production of meaning through spatial practices.

Key case studies from my past work include:

● An analysis of Korean apartment culture;

● A participatory research project on North Korean cities;

● And an exploration of “life on the lines” in Korea’s inter-Korean border zones.

Each of these shaped distinct methodological engagements that have accumulated into a broader practice. Building on this foundation, I now seek to experiment with sensory dimensions and haptic regimes of knowledge to further develop a cultural geography that responds to the “new normal” of contemporary society.

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