photograph is an image of Prof. Baik’s mother who grew up during the Park Chung-hee military dictatorship era in Korea.

This event will be postponed to our 2020/2021 Workshop Series.

When: TBD

Where: TBD

What does it mean to live with a 70-year war when its manifestations, hypervisible and deeply sensed, are perceived as everyday formations delinked from militarization? Crystal Mun-hye Baik addresses this question by discussing the Intergenerational Korean American Oral History Project, a diasporic memory archive shaped by an ethics of deep care, attentive listening and polyvocal narration. Facilitating the collaborative sharing of contested stories of war, militarized migration, and fraught relationships, the Intergenerational Korean American Oral History Project gives way to an enlivened practice of remembering that reckons with the devastating consequences of the un-ended Korean War. An excerpt from her recently published book, Reencounters: On the Korean War and Diasporic Memory Critique (Temple University Press, 2019), this talk considers the possibility of crafting an oral/aural archive of the present, rather than defining the Korean War through terms affiliated with the post or the after. As part of her talk, Prof. Baik will collaborate with three members from Nodutdol for Korean Community Development in New York (sponsors of the Intergenerational project), including Danny Kim, Juyeon Rhee, and Meejin Richart, to share and discuss performances based on collected interviews.

Crystal Mun-hye Baik is Assistant Professor in the Department of Gender & Sexuality Studies (GSST) at the University of California, Riverside and a graduate of the OHMA Program (2010). Prof. Baik's recently published book, Reencounters: On the Korean War & Diasporic Memory Critique examines the everydayness of the Korean War and its consequences through a diasporic feminist archive of memory works, including oral history projects, performances and video installations. Facilitating jolting moments of opening or reencounters with the mundane, these cultural memory works reckon with the Korean War's normalized ramifications, even as they underscore decolonizing possibilities that challenge the now 70-year US militarized occupation of Korea.

Nodutdol for Korean Community Development, Based in New York City, Nodutdol is a community of first through fourth generation Koreans living in the U.S. We are a community that has families in both the south and north of Korea. We are diverse in our backgrounds and perspectives, but bound together by our shared sense of the Korean homeland that continues to suffer under division [with the understanding that the concept of ‘home’ may vary]. We are part of the Korean diaspora spread throughout the globe made up of artists, filmmakers, teachers, students, workers, professionals, young families, etc. who believe in social justice.