Controversial Topics in Contemporary South Korean Society
Course Description
This course engages critical thinking skills to explore controversial cultural questions currently at play in Korean Studies. To that end, we will critically examine the perceptions, theories, arguments, and proposed solutions to some of the most difficult and vexing social issues in Korean culture today. Although we will explore the many different perceptions and opinions about these cultural issues, this course engages a social scientific approach, as it seeks to analyze the central institutions and mechanisms that social scientists argue are responsible for creating, reproducing, reducing and changing the structure of inequalities in South Korean society today. We will look at how these institutions and mechanisms effect a variety of different groups and sectors, including families, neighborhoods, education, and labor markets, to name a few. Within each topic area, we will pay special attention to the significance of race and ethnicity, social class and gender and how they combine to produce different outcomes in terms of analysis and cultural experience. Although our focus is on contemporary cultural issues, we will also place each topic in broader historical and political contexts.
Course Requirements
Required Reading
Students are expected to come to class having already done the reading listed on the syllabus for that class date. This is the minimum required of you to be in the class. There are no prerequisites.
Attendance and Class Participation (15%)
Attendance is mandatory. You are not permitted to miss class except in cases of illness or family emergency. Please inform your instructor or your TA in advance by e-mail. Unexcused absences will count against your class participation grade. Your class participation grade will be based on regular attendance, preparation, and active and thoughtful participation in class discussions, including active listening.
Online Forum/ E-mail Posts (5%)
Forum is an asynchronous learning network, or, in other words, a place on the Web where you can post your thoughts/responses/reactions to me and to your classmates. You will be required to write one post of approximately 150 to 250 word count, during the length of the course. The posts are to be "posted" by 12 noon on the Wednesday before the Thursday class. Posts are not papers; they are, however, well-organized and well thought-out responses to the readings and topic assigned for that particular week. Your post should make the attempt to integrate the weekly readings and also to place the week’s reading within the context of previous course readings and discussions. As part of your Forum assignment, you will also be required to read the posts of your classmates, which is why the deadline is earlier than our class on Wednesday afternoon, so you will have time to read peers’ responses. By reading (and writing) the posts we will begin the class the next day with a number of ideas/responses on the table, so to speak. I expect to begin each class by responding to the posts as a group and suggesting directions and problems for that particular day.
Critical Response Papers (4x): (20%)
During the course of the semester you are required to write four reading responses of no more than one-page response to the week’s reading. You can pace yourselves and choose the week you will write, but at least two responses are due before mid-semester, April 25th.
In some cases, I will give you specific prompts or questions to answer in these essays, but basically reading responses should offer a critical response of the text or texts assigned for the week. Typically, this means you should identify the main theoretical and/or empirical research question orienting the work, provide a brief description of the main argument, and offer an assessment of the text, noting both its strengths and possible limitations. Strong responses will do more than summarize and evaluate a specific reading, but will critically engage the text and its theoretical and methodological questions. You should also try to think about how the week’s readings relate to other texts we’ve read in the course. Do the assigned texts extend or contradict earlier findings? Do they take the literature in a new theoretical or methodological direction?
Take-home Midterm Essay and Final Essay: (25% and 35%)
You will be required to write an Op-ed piece on a given topic (approx. 3-4 pages double-spaced).
**The format of the exam and details will be discussed prior to the exam.
Course Policy
Late Assignment Policy
No extensions will be granted, except in cases of serious illness or emergency, for which documentation is required.
Collaboration Policy
You are expected to collaborate with others in this class. In terms of any graded assignments, you may discuss and work together with others. However, the expectation is that the final submitted work represents your own original writing, and yours alone.
Laptop / Electronic Device Policy
Laptops, tablets and electronic reading devices are permitted in class for the sole purpose of consulting class materials or taking lecture notes. Use of e-mail, internet, texting, etc. and any work related to other classes are not permitted. Use of cell phones is not permitted without permission of instructor or TA. For privacy purposes, video and audio taping is not permitted.
Policy on Academic Integrity
Plagiarism and other forms of academic dishonesty are serious offenses and will be dealt with according to the university policy and procedures. All students are expected to be familiar with your university policies and guidelines on academic integrity as outlined in the Handbook on Academic Integrity. Please review all the guidelines in the handbook, including the information on responsible paraphrasing.
Course Grading
Attendance and Class Participation 15%; Online Forum/Email Posts 5%; Reading Responses
20%; Midterm Exam 25%; Final Exam 35%
Definition of Grades
A. Exceptionally good performance, demonstrating a superior understanding of the subject matter and skillful use of concepts and / or materials.
B. Good performance, demonstrating capacity to use the appropriate concepts, a good understanding of the subject matter, and an ability to handle the problems and materials encountered in the subject.
C. Adequate performance, demonstrating an adequate understanding of the subject matter, an ability to handle relatively simple problems, and adequate preparation for moving on to more advanced work in the field.
D. Minimally acceptable performance, demonstrating at least partial familiarity with the subject matter and some capacity to deal with relatively simple problems, but also containing deficiencies serious enough to make it inadvisable to proceed further in the field without additional work.
Readings and Required Text:
All Readings will be available online as PDF files
COURSE SCHEDULE
** I reserve the right to make changes in the class schedule as needed and as seem appropriate for the development of the class objectives, but I will not add major papers or projects.
Week 1 (2/14) Getting Started
One-paragraph Reflection
What is society? How can we understand it? What key terms and phrases come to mind when you think of Korea and why?
Week 2 (2/21) Course Overview and Korean Nationalism (On Campus Lecture)
Gi Wook Shin, “Introduction: Explaining the Roots and Politics of Korean Nationalism,”
1-20 and “Between Nationalism and Globalization,” in Ethnic Nationalism in Korea:
Genealogy, Politics, and Legacy, (Stanford, Stanford UP, 2006), 204-221.
Week 3 (2/28) Transnational Adoption
Eleana Kim, Human Capital: Transnational Korean Adoptees and the Neoliberal Logic of
Return,” Journal of Korean Studies 17:2 (2012), 299-327.
Week 4 (3/07) National Holiday
No Class
Week 5 (3/14) “Comfort Women” Memories and Critiques
Sala, Ilaria Maria. “Why Is the Plight of ‘Comfort Women’ Still So Controversial?” The New
York Times, 14 Aug. 2017. Op-ed.
Week 6 (3/21) Korean Families in Transition
John Finch and Seung-kyung Kim, “The Korean Family in Transition” in Routledge
Handbook of Korean Culture and Society, 134-148.
Week 7 (3/28) Inequality and Social Change
Hagen Koo, “The Muddled Middle Class in Globalized South Korea,” in Routledge
Handbook of Korean Culture and Society (New York: Routledge, 2017), 107-118.
Week 8 (4/04) In-class Midterm Exam or Take-Home Essay (TBA)
Week 9 (4/11) South Korean Education
So Jin Park, “Educational Manager Mothers as Neoliberal Maternal Subjects,” New
Millennium South Korea: Neoliberal Capitalism and Transnational Movements, ed., Jesook
Song (New York: Routledge, 2010), 101-114.
Week 10 (4/18) Youth and Unemployment (ELECTION DAY – no class)
Haejoang Cho and Jeffrey Stark, “South Korean Youth Across Three Decades,” in Routledge
Handbook of Korean Culture and Society, 119-133.
Week 11 (4/25) Urbanization and Gentrification (OR Multiculturalism)
Seon Young Lee, “Cities for Profit: Profit-driven Gentrification in Seoul, South Korea,”
Urban Studies (2017), 1-15.
Week 12 (5/02) Gender and Sexuality
Laurel Kendall, “Introduction,” in Under Construction: The Gendering of Modernity, Class
and Consumption in the Republic of Korea, ed. Laurel Kendall (Honolulu: University of
Hawai’I Press, 2002), 1-24.
Week 13 (5/09) Beauty, Desire and Aesthetics
Zara Stone, “The K-Pop Plastic Surgery Obsession,” The Atlantic, May 24, 2013.
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/05/the-k-pop-plastic-surgeryobsession/276215/
Week 14 (5/16) Technology and Video Gaming
Dal Yong Jin, “Age of New Media Empires: A Critical Interpretations of the Korean Online
Game Industry,” Games and Culture 3:1 (Jan 2008), 38-58.
Week 15 (5/23) In-class Final Exam or Take-home Essay (TBA)