E009: Environmental Crisis and Response in Modern and Contemporary Korea

Organizer(s)

• 

  Ivanna Yi

  Cornell University, United States

Chair(s)

• 

  Ivanna Yi

  Cornell University, United States

Paper Presenter(s)

• 

  Joseph Seeley

  University of Virginia, United States
• YK

  Yeonsil Kang

  Drexel University, United States
• KC

  Kimberly Chung

  McGill University, Canada
• 

  Ivanna Yi

  Cornell University, United States

Discussant(s)

• SH

  Su-kyoung Hwang

  The University of Sydney, Australia

Session Abstract: This interdisciplinary panel examines responses to ecological crises in Korea since the 20^th century. With new approaches from environmental history and ecocriticism, we explore questions receiving growing attention in the Environmental Humanities: How does storytelling make the agency of the nonhuman world more visible? How do ecological movements articulate and change systemic inequities? In what ways does globalization impact domestic fights for environmental justice? What are the consequences of human responses to nonhuman agents such as viruses, particularly in conditions of asymmetric power?

The panel begins with Joseph Seeley’s paper, which investigates the economic and social consequences of cattle plague outbreaks in colonial Korea (1910-1945) along the Sino-Korean border, arguing that the attempt to prevent these viral ‘invasions’ was an extension of colonial power involving borderland Koreans. Yeonsil Kang highlights the roles of global and domestic actors in the transfer of hazardous industries to and within Asia in the 20^th century, focusing on a transnational history of the asbestos industry in South Korea and continuing struggles for environmental justice. Kimberly Chung examines the interrelationship between feminism, art practice, and ecological sense in contemporary South Korea, showing how the visual culture of an emerging feminist ecology interrogates capitalist patriarchalism and situates the exploitation of women within a wider web of human/nonhuman interrelations. Ivanna Yi analyzes South Korean writer Han Kang’s The Vegetarian (2007) with ecofeminist and posthuman frameworks, arguing that the novel advocates for the sentience of the more-than-human world as it critiques gender disparities and rapid South Korean development.

Presentations:

• Fighting Cattle Plague 'Invasions' in Colonial Korea
  

  Paper Presenter: Joseph Seeley – University of Virginia
• Transnational Hazard: A History of Asbestos Industry and Responsibility in South Korea
  

  Paper Presenter: Yeonsil Kang – Drexel University
• Ecological Sense and Feminist Practice in Contemporary Korea
  

  Paper Presenter: Kimberly Chung – McGill University
• Dreaming of a Sentient Land: Ecofeminism and Crises of Embodiment in Han Kang's the Vegetarian
  

  Paper Presenter: Ivanna Yi – Cornell University