PLEASE SIGN to support Prof Tiffany Willoughby-Herard! 2 yrs ago Prof W-H stood up to protect students, rightly declaring “we cannot have a genocidal foreign policy in a democracy” while being violently arrested. Tell UCI to DROP all disciplinary charges against her! sites.google.com/view/withdra...

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On May 15, 2024, several hundred heavily armed police were called in to break up a peaceful encampment at UC Irvine in solidarity with the people of Gaza. Among those arrested that day was UC Irvine G...

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International grad workers deserve dignity. International grad workers deserve respect. International grad workers *deserve to be paid for their labor.* /fin

We're excited to announce an alternative conference for those boycotting ASA! "Resisting Authoritarianism: Global Solidarity & Democratic Futures" will take place in NYC on Aug 10-11 at the CUNY Graduate Center. RSVP today: tinyurl.com/ResistSoc #BoycottASA

Just received a review invite from Frontiers in Sociology that seems to be AI-generated and cites papers I never wrote. The paper abstract also seems clearly AI-generated. The journal has a few hundred associate editors, but I’m not sure if any actual humans are involved in the editorial process.

Michael Okun@michael-okun.bsky.social · 2mo ago

I’ve officially resigned as Associate Editor for Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience. It used to be a reputable journal, but became a case study in how forced automation destroys academic integrity. 👇

If you’re working on LGBTQ+ movements or rights and thinking about ASA submissions tonight, I’m organizing two connected panels on queer/trans movements and LGBTQ+ rights in times of crisis and backlash. Submissions are due tonight at 9PM (EST). Thanks for considering!

How are young people around the world organizing amid a global polycrisis—democratic backsliding, rising fascism, war/genocide & climate catastrophe? Join the ASA CBSM @asa-cbsm.bsky.social virtual conversation on Global Youth Mobilization! 📅 Dec 8, 2025, 11AM (Chicago Time) RSVP: bit.ly/3K1ZUIi

Join us for a workshop on publishing books in Korean studies (broadly defined). Speakers will tackle questions like: How long from idea to contract? How to pitch to editors? What goes in the book vs. articles? How to stay authentic? 🗓 Nov 12 (Wed), 3:30-5PM EST 🔗 Sign up: bit.ly/dkscbookwork...

Decolonizing Korean Studies Collective@dksc.bsky.social · 10mo ago

DKSC 📖 Publication Workshop | November 12 (Wed), 3:30-5PM EST Panelists will share insights on turning dissertations into books and navigating editorial and disciplinary expectations in the context of Korean studies. Sign up here: bit.ly/dkscbookwork...

Join us for a virtual conversation with ASA Human Rights Section Book Award winners, Chana Teeger and Elizabeth Hordge-Freeman, on race, memory, and injustice. I’ll be moderating this discussion. 📅 November 19 (Wed) 10–11 AM CST / 4–5 PM GMT RSVP: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

A new article out: “Flexible Masculinities: Negotiating Gender, Sexuality, and Ethnicity in Global Asia.” I introduce the concept of “flexible masculinities” to understand how people navigate shifting gender norms across different cultural and geographic contexts. doi.org/10.1177/0011...

Flexible masculinities: Negotiating gender, sexuality, and ethnicity in global Asia - Minwoo Jung, 2025

How do individuals navigate various forms of hegemonic masculinity as they traverse different geographic and cultural boundaries? This article introduces the co...

doi.org

Please spread the word! 📢 My PhD student Kajal Patel is recruiting interviewees for her dissertation research on the children of Gujarati immigrant families. If you grew up helping in your family’s business, please share your stories with Kajal: 📧 klucpatel@gmail.com

I’ll be visiting Budapest as a Junior Fellow at the IAS-CEU @iasceu.bsky.social during Fall 2025. I look forward to engaging with other fellows, visiting scholars, and artists in residence. Friends and colleagues passing through Eastern Europe are most welcome to connect.

Join us for a roundtable reflecting on the decade since Feminism Reboot (2015), a turning point in feminist and queer politics and scholarship in South Korea. Together, we’ll reflect on what has shifted, what has stalled, and what futures we might imagine. Register here: bit.ly/46jg871

Decolonizing Korean Studies Collective@dksc.bsky.social · 11mo ago

DKSC presents a roundtable discussion on the 10th anniversary of “Feminism Reboot,” on 9/26 (Fri) at 8PM EST. We will reflect on a decade of feminist and queer politics, activism, and scholarship in Korean Studies in both North America and South Korea. Register here: bit.ly/46jg871

I’ll be giving talks both in Taipei and Seoul later this month. If anybody’s around, please feel free to come by and connect.

My new open-access article in the British Journal of Sociology explores how Korean queer activists envision and enact social change by rethinking “the global”—shifting from UN human rights frameworks to regional solidarities across Asia.

Decolonizing the Global: Contested Cosmopolitanisms in Global Queer Activism

In the last decade, the “decolonial turn” has gained prominence across academic disciplines, challenging inherent Eurocentric knowledge paradigms. Extending these conversations, this paper critically....

doi.org

Eighty years ago today in 1945, Korea was freed after 35 years under Japanese colonial rule—a day we remember as “the day the light returned (광복절).” On this anniversary, many Koreans hold in hearts the hope of liberation for other occupied lands and colonized peoples.

Two days ago, a 23-year-old Vietnamese construction worker, Ngo Duy Long, died from heatstroke at a worksite in South Korea. It was his first day on the job. While Korean workers left at 1PM in 99°F heat, Long and other migrant workers worked until 4PM. He was found collapsed, body temp 104.4°F.

‘폭염’ 한국인 낮 1시 퇴근…이주노동자만 4시까지 일 시키다 사망

경북 구미에서 폭염 속 20대 베트남 국적 노동자가 숨진 가운데 이주노동자들만 혹서기 단축 근무를 하지 않은 것으로 나타났다. 노동단체는 폭염 휴식 의무화 적용을 하루빨리 시행해야 한다고 촉구했다. 전국건설노조 대구경북건설지부는 9일 오전 대구시 수성구 대구고용노동청

hani.co.kr

How ironic that the deeply homophobic government of my home country, South Korea, is sponsoring an international screening of a queer film—Love in the Big City (2024), based on Sang Young Park’s bestselling novel—as a representation of K-culture abroad. 🤷‍♂️

Yesterday, queer activists from the national LGBTQ coalition Rainbow Action and Palestine solidarity activists issued a joint statement urging an end to the silence on Palestine. Over 3,000 Korean LGBTQ community members and allies have signed the solidarity petition: campaigns.do/campaigns/1577

[한국 성소수자 - 팔레스타인 연대 성명] 집단학살에 침묵, 공모하는 프라이드는 없다 - 팔레스타인의 반식민 투쟁에 | 빠띠

[한국 성소수자 - 팔레스타인 연대 성명] 집단학살에 침묵, 공모하는 프라이드는 없다 - 팔레스타인의 반식민 투쟁에 적극적으로 연루되자! 우리는 말한다. 이 땅의 생명으로서, 인간으로서, 비인간동물의 이웃으로서, 성소수자로서, 차별과 배제의 폭력을 경험해온 이들로서, 동시에 저항의 힘을 만들어낸 이들로서, 팔레스타인에 이어지는 학살의 목격자로서, 절멸의 위...

campaigns.do

As South Korea’s newly elected President Lee Jae-myung pledges to rebuild democracy, revive the economy, and foster a just and safe society, several long-running grassroots protests across the country highlight challenges ahead and call on the government to turn promises into meaningful action.

“Can the past help the present? Can the dead save the living?” (Han Kang)

Catsuka@catsuka.bsky.social · last yr.

"Into the New World", a tribute to the people of South Korea who took to the streets a few months ago (and before). Directed by Nakwon with many other artists. >> www.catsuka.com/breves/2025-...

In this collective conversation at @sexandsexualities.bsky.social, Jyoti Puri, Sa’ed Atshan, Zine Magubane, and I discussed the intersections of empire, race, sexuality, and gender in history and in the present. doi.org/10.1177/3033...

“As a field largely institutionalized within US academia during the Cold War, Korean studies has long operated as a knowledge project that served the strategic and ideological interests of the US empire. The production of academic knowledge about Korea was never neutral.”

Decolonizing Korean Studies Collective@dksc.bsky.social · last yr.

We’ve updated our mission statement on our webpage in both English and Korean: dkscollective.com/dks-collecti...

“Gwangju is not over. The perpetrators have never been fully held accountable, and South Korea’s official narrative of post-dictatorship democracy has obscured the enduring effects of military rule… Gwangju is not just a traumatic event happened in 1980—it remains deeply embedded in the present.”

hieyoon kim@0absentia.bsky.social · last yr.

In this short piece, I refuse to commemorate the 45th anniversary of the Gwangju Uprising. origins.osu.edu/read/gwangju...

Lee Ok-sun, a survivor of the Japanese military‘s wartime sexual slavery system known as “comfort women,” has died at the age of 97. Her death leaves only six registered survivors of the officially recognized victims.

일본군 ‘위안부’ 피해 이옥선 할머니 별세…생존자 6명 뿐

일본군 ‘위안부’ 피해자인 이옥선 할머니가 건강 악화로 별세했다. 향년 97. 여성가족부는 11일 이 할머니가 이날 저녁 8시께 성남의 한 요양병원에서 세상을 떠났다고 밝혔다. 경기 광주시 나눔의집에서 생활해오던 이 할머니는 지난해 3월부터 건강 문제로 요양병원에서 지

hani.co.kr

Keimyung University in Daegu, South Korea, is shutting down its Women’s Studies grad program (one of only two independent departments in the country) merging it into Sociology, sparking strong backlash against an undemocratic move disguised as a response to low enrollment and financial strain.

"여성학과 죽이기 프로젝트"…계명대 대학원 여성학과 통합 결정 반발

계명대학교가 1990년부터 35년간 대구·경북 지역 성평등 연구의 거점이 돼온 대학원 여성학과를 폐지하고 사회학과 세부전공으로 통합한다. 대학본부가 별도의 학과를 유지해달라는...

pressian.com

How can I stay ethically and politically grounded while still extending care and generosity? Keep my eyes open to pain and injustice without being paralyzed by despair? Long for more without letting it turn into self-doubt or resentment? The long spring semester’s over, but nothing feels clear.

In the US, screenings of documentaries like No Other Land and The Encampments have been banned or canceled on campuses. In South Korea, a university-run theater has banned the screening of queer films. What’s allowed on campus speaks volumes about the current landscape of higher education.

Professor Kim Seok-ho, the chair of the sociology department at Seoul National University recently joined the presidential campaign of former acting president Han Duck-soo as its head fundraiser. Han is widely recognized as a key figure in the self-coup attempt by impeached president Yoon Suk Yeol.

서울대 학생들 "한덕수 후원회장 맡은 교수, 내란공범 지지 용납 못해"

한덕수 캠프 후원회장을 맡은 김석호 서울대 사회학과 학과장이 "한덕수 지지는 내란수괴 윤석열 정권 지지와 다르지 않다"는 비판과 함께 제자들에게 후원회장직 즉각 사퇴를 요구받...

pressian.com

2025 marks 50 years since the end of the US war in Vietnam. Yet South Korea’s role, including its troops’ violence against civilians, remains underacknowledged. Tied to US-led militarism, Korean soldiers served as racialized, gendered labor in a broader system of imperial violence and exploitation.

Please join the ASA Global/Transnational Section and UP Diliman for the virtual event, Decolonizing Sociology: Centering the Global South. Panelists will share their visions for decolonization led by the Global South. May 2 (Fri), 9AM EST, 1PM GMT | Zoom: tinyurl.com/ASAGATSUP | PW: UPDiliman