On April 5th, the East Asian Studies Center co-sponsored a Korean culture night, Harmony in Motion:A Night of Korean Arts and Performance, bringing students and professors together to appreciate and showcase Korean art.

The event included students' performances, including singing in traditional Korean pansori, K-pop dances, and individual speeches delivered in Korean. Local performance groups also partook in the performances, with taekwondo clubs coming in to show their moves and a Samulnori Percussion Ensemble playing several historical pieces.

A video highlighting the performances of this night can be found here.

A few days following this event, the Chris Lee Korean Performance Research Program (KPRP) 2024 Student Research Workshop was held on Monday, April 15. This workshop featured Ohio State students’ research presentations and a keynote lecture from Dr. Grace Kao, Professor of Sociology at Yale University.

The presentations explored popular social and musical discourse surrounding K-pop, such as the multiethnicity of performers, the bridging of hip-hop and K-pop, and the issues of abuse, exploitation, and discrimination in the Korean entertainment industry. Presenters included graduate students with published work on K-pop, as well as undergraduate students who are currently taking a Big Ten Academic Alliance Korean e-School course on K-pop.