Seoul National University’s Center for Contemporary Korean Studies held an international conference titled “Korea as Symptom” over two days, on August 22 and 23. On the second day of the conference, the Modernity and Development History Team organized the first session, titled “The Political and Social Landscape of Korea,” in Room 230, Building 101, at Seoul National University. Chaired by Professor Lee Chang-keun of the KDI School of Public Policy and Management, the session featured the following two presentations.

In the first presentation, Mutaha Abed, a doctoral student at Birzeit University, presented on “Cultural Productions of Resistance: The Gwangju Uprising and Its Legacy in South Korean Protest Culture.” The presentation explored the role played by the Gwangju Uprising of the 1980s and subsequent Korean protest culture in social movements, with particular attention to how literature, film, and visual art became intertwined with cultures of resistance.

Second, Torunika Roy, a doctoral student at Jawaharlal Nehru University, presented on “The Legacy of Population Control: How Cold War Politics Shaped South Korea’s Fertility Crisis.” While existing studies have generally explained Korea’s extremely low birth rate in terms of economic insecurity, gender inequality, and changes in social values, the presenter approached Korea’s fertility crisis through the lens of Cold War-era population control policies. In particular, drawing on Foucault’s concept of biopower, the presentation examined how U.S. contraceptive technologies intervened in Korea’s population policy.

This session explored changes in Korea’s political and social landscape by moving between the country’s past and present. By addressing diverse topics such as Korea’s protest culture and its extremely low fertility rate, the session also offered an opportunity to examine a range of discourses surrounding contemporary Korean society in a comprehensive way.