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IKS Lecture: Na Sil Heo, "Privacy for Modern Housing: Transnational Anti-Communism and Postwar Reconstruction in Cold War South Korea"

Na Sil Heo
April 3, 2023
12:00PM - 1:30PM
Derby Hall 1039

Date Range
Add to Calendar 2023-04-03 12:00:00 2023-04-03 13:30:00 IKS Lecture: Na Sil Heo, "Privacy for Modern Housing: Transnational Anti-Communism and Postwar Reconstruction in Cold War South Korea" The Institute for Korean Studies and Mershon Center for International Security Studies present: "Privacy for Modern Housing: Transnational Anti-Communism and Postwar Reconstruction in Cold War South Korea" Na Sil Heo University of South Carolina Abstract: After the Korean War (1950–53), Korean architects (re)negotiated their understanding of good, modern housing befitting the Cold War milieu. Among many, privacy (p’ŭraibo ̆shi) became a central architectural concern in South Korea, reflecting Korea’s deep engagement with liberal values that were claimed to be lacking in socialist countries. In this talk, I argue that the discussion of conjugal sex in architectural texts, newspapers, and magazines was linked to Cold War visions of privacy, which was construed to be distinct to liberal, capitalist societies (noncommunist societies). Privacy was a project of articulating a qualitative difference from the collective and communal housing that was understood to be characteristic of communism in North Korea. In this way, housing became a site of transnational anti-communism, as architects and aspiring homeowners invested much energy in the ideological and material construction of privacy as a salient feature of modern housing in South Korea. Download the PDF flyer here.  Dr. Na Sil Heo is an Assistant Professor of East Asian History. Her research interests include studies of childhood, the cultural Cold War, race, and gender and sexuality. She is currently completing a book manuscript that examines how childhood was a crucial site of postwar reconstruction and transnational anti-communism in 1950s-1960s South Korea. Reading sources ranging from home floor plans and children’s literature to infant formula advertisements, her work reveals how Cold War liberalism manifested in various sites of childhood in postwar Korea. Her research has been supported by multiple grants and fellowships, including the Postdoctoral Associates Program in the Council on East Asian Studies at Yale University and the Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Humanities at the University of Pennsylvania.  Derby Hall 1039 East Asian Studies Center easc@osu.edu America/New_York public

The Institute for Korean Studies and Mershon Center for International Security Studies present:

"Privacy for Modern Housing: Transnational Anti-Communism and Postwar Reconstruction in Cold War South Korea"

Na Sil Heo
University of South Carolina


Abstract: After the Korean War (1950–53), Korean architects (re)negotiated their understanding of good, modern housing befitting the Cold War milieu. Among many, privacy (p’ŭraibo ̆shi) became a central architectural concern in South Korea, reflecting Korea’s deep engagement with liberal values that were claimed to be lacking in socialist countries. In this talk, I argue that the discussion of conjugal sex in architectural texts, newspapers, and magazines was linked to Cold War visions of privacy, which was construed to be distinct to liberal, capitalist societies (noncommunist societies). Privacy was a project of articulating a qualitative difference from the collective and communal housing that was understood to be characteristic of communism in North Korea. In this way, housing became a site of transnational anti-communism, as architects and aspiring homeowners invested much energy in the ideological and material construction of privacy as a salient feature of modern housing in South Korea. Download the PDF flyer here

Dr. Na Sil Heo is an Assistant Professor of East Asian History. Her research interests include studies of childhood, the cultural Cold War, race, and gender and sexuality. She is currently completing a book manuscript that examines how childhood was a crucial site of postwar reconstruction and transnational anti-communism in 1950s-1960s South Korea. Reading sources ranging from home floor plans and children’s literature to infant formula advertisements, her work reveals how Cold War liberalism manifested in various sites of childhood in postwar Korea. Her research has been supported by multiple grants and fellowships, including the Postdoctoral Associates Program in the Council on East Asian Studies at Yale University and the Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Humanities at the University of Pennsylvania. 

Free and Open to the Public

If you require an accommodation, such as live captioning, to participate in this event, please contact EASC at easc@osu.edu. Requests made at least two weeks in advance of the event will generally allow us to provide seamless access, but the university will make every effort to meet requests made after this date. 

This event is supported by a U.S. Department of Education Title VI grant to The Ohio State University East Asian Studies Center.