POSTPONED
The Institute for Korean Studies presents:
Merose Hwang
Assistant Professor
History
Hiram College
“Rituals for the Wrongfully Killed: Survey of Shamanism and Mass Killings in Post ’45 South Korea”
Flyer:
Abstract: Neo-Confucian literati, European writers, and modern journalists have employed shamanism as an academic lingua franca to understand and ultimately control frontier spaces. By surveying the imperial and intellectual projects behind shamanism, I have found that concepts associated with shamans coincided with imperial expansionist interests. This talk will give a brief introduction to the first studies done on shamanism in Korea. Then, by highlighting the mnemonic function of ritual in post WWII South Korea, I will show not only why shamans have been treated as political outliers, but more importantly, the perspective of the practitioner: how they facilitate communal reenactments of genocide and heal their communities through indigenous negotiations.
Bio: Merose Hwang is an Assistant Professor of History and the Program Coordinator for the Asian Studies Minor at Hiram College. She received her Ph.D. from the Department of East Asian Studies at the University of Toronto. She has held positions as a research fellow at the Institute for Korean Studies, Yonsei University and Visiting Scholar at the Institute for the Study of Religion at Sogang University. She has worked as a freelance translator for the Academy of Korean Studies at Seoul National University. She has been the recipient of the National Endowment for the Humanities, Kathryn W. Davis Fellowship for Peace, Korea Foundation's Rising Stars Program, Connaught Fellowship, Samsung Fellowship, and the Kyujanggak Institute for Korean Studies Fellowship. At Hiram, she teaches World History and Asian history. Her recent research areas of interest include post ’45 history of human rights and genocide, indigenous rituals and community health.
Free and open to the public
This event is made possible by a U.S. Department of Education Title VI grant to The Ohio State University East Asian Studies Center.
