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"Beyond Pandemics: Reimagining the Humanities and the New Normal"
The English Language and Literature Association of Korea (ELLAK) is pleased to announce an international conference on “Beyond Pandemics: Reimagining the Humanities and the New Normal” to be held at Korea University, Seoul, South Korea, from December 16 to 18, 2021.
The COVID-19 pandemic has turned our world upside down. In addition to disrupting our day-to-day experiences of how we work, travel, and interact with others, the pandemic has had far-reaching consequences on the economy, educational system, healthcare services, and international relations. As we continue to come to grips with the havoc that the new coronavirus has wreaked on the world, the “new normal” has become an integral part of our vocabulary. However, it is not an entirely new term, for its usage can be traced to as early as 1922. After being increasingly discussed in relation to other major crises such as the 2005 avian flu, the 2008 financial crisis, and the global recession that shortly ensued, the “new normal” has now become firmly enmeshed in our collective discourse and imagination in the post-COVID era. While it can simply refer to our experiences as the pandemic continues to spread and impose drastic changes upon our lives, it can also be employed as a rhetorical means to mitigate the disruptions caused by the virus and normalize our current situation. On the other hand, the “new normal” enables us to shed renewed light on the frailties of the human condition as well as the structural inequalities that prevail in our societies and consequently reimagine the post-pandemic world.
At this critical juncture, in which we are simultaneously experiencing and transitioning to a “new normal,” ELLAK aims to examine how the studies of English language and literature (or more broadly, the humanities) can contribute to the interrogation of this term and thereby help us better navigate the latest in the series of crises to have afflicted the world. It is during such times of crisis and radical change that literary and cultural texts can play a significant role. That catastrophes have a stimulating effect on the mind and imagination is made evident by the plethora of plague narratives, which have accompanied human history. As previous works such as Giovanni Boccaccio’s The Decameron, Daniel Defoe’s A Journal of the Plague Year, Charles Brockden Brown’s Arthur Mervyn, Mary Shelley’s The Last Man, Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Masque of the Red Death,” and Albert Camus’ The Plague demonstrate, literary and cultural texts do more than just provide a compelling imaginative account of the effects that actual and imagined disasters have on humanity and the world. In addition to helping us attain a critical understanding of the dynamics of various political, economic, and social institutions, they lead us to imagine alternative modes of being and thinking as we deal with the exigencies of the present and face an increasingly uncertain future.
By examining the various ways in which literary and cultural texts have responded to not only the current crisis, but also past global and local disasters that date back to the beginning of human history, ELLAK seeks to reimagine what the term “new normal” means and can mean as it relates to all aspects of human life in the past, present, and future. Rather than uncritically accepting and perpetuating the new (or old) status quo, we would like to use this opportunity to explore how the humanities can aid us in not only overcoming the problems and challenges produced by disasters beyond the current pandemic, but also bringing about fundamental change in our respective societies and global community. The 2021 ELLAK Conference organizing committee invites scholars, educators, and students in the humanities as well as other disciplines to submit papers that directly or indirectly address issues related to such an imaginative reconstruction of the “new normal.”
Topics may include but are not limited to the following subjects:
To apply for participation in the conference, submit an abstract and short bio to 2021ellak@gmail.com by June 30, 2021.
Proposals may be submitted for either individual papers or sessions.
Each presentation, which can be delivered in either Korean or English, will be no longer than 20 minutes, followed by a discussion and Q&A session.
For further inquiries, please contact the Organizing Committee at 2021ellak@gmail.com.
Important Dates:
Registration Fee:
Registration Fee includes:
Webcast Casa Asia
«El sistema de salud coreano y la industria biosanitaria de Corea del Sur:
respuestas a una gestión eficiente del COVID-19»
Con motivo de la conmemoración de los 70 Años del establecimiento de relaciones diplomáticas entre España y la República de Corea, abordaremos las características del sistema de salud coreano, las reformas realizadas en el mismo desde el año 2000, y las principales actuaciones llevadas a cabo en salud pública.
Se analizarán, además, los planes de modernización e impulso que se han llevado a cabo en la industria biosanitaria de Corea del Sur y todos los aspectos relacionados con la inteligencia artificial, big data y real world evidence sobre la gestión sanitaria del COVID 19 en el país asiático. Del mismo modo, se hará una breve reseña de las relaciones en aspectos sanitarios entre España y Corea.
Palabras de bienvenida:
Rafael Bueno, director de Política, Sociedad y Programas Educativos de Casa Asia.
A cargo de:
Álvaro Hidalgo, director del grupo de investigación de Economía de la Salud de la Universidad de Castilla La Mancha (UCLM) y presidente del Centro Español de Investigaciones Coreanas y la Fundación Weber.
Detalles:
The 3rd International Workshop
Hate Speech in Asia and Europe: Pandemic, Fear, and Hate
May 20 (THU) – 21 (FRI), 2021
Convener:
Center for Korean Studies, Ritsumeikan University, Kioto, Japan
Co-organizers:
Institute of Communication Research, Seoul National University, South Korea
LCAO-CCJ, Université de Paris, France
Supporter:
This project began in 2017 as a way to bring scholars across the continents together to discuss national, regional, and global dynamics of hate speech from diverse viewpoints that include the political, legal, historical, ideological and cultural perspectives. Through the 1st and 2nd workshop, held respectively in Kyoto and Paris, we explored the contours of hate speech in different Asian and European countries. And some of the papers from the two workshops were published via a journal special issue and an edited volume.
(You can find more information on the edited volume from the 1st workshop at here)
Next year, the workshop will continue and expand this conversation by considering acute tensions surrounding hate speech issues in the age of pandemic and including research on other continents, not strictly confined to Asia and Europe.
Although the COVID-19 was of natural origin, its impact on society is more a matter of a social crisis than a natural disaster. Pandemic is shaking the society to its very foundation. This workshop pays attention to the fear, discrimination, and hatred between nations, communities, and individuals within the context of the anxiety and inequality brought by the pandemic. COVID-19 has spurred hate speeches across continents, from the conflict between the U.S. and China to discriminatory acts targeting at the ‘other(s)’. The profile of victims varies from country to country, and diverse civil societies and nations have responded to this phenomenon in different manners. While no one can predict how this pandemic is going to shape the world after all, through this workshop, we expect to explore hate speech fueled by the pandemic crisis and seek philosophical, ethical and theoretical perspectives that illuminate how to overcome the fear and the hate in this pandemic era.
We invite you to submit paper abstracts adopting different approaches such as media studies, history, sociology, anthropology, political science, legal studies, religious studies that examine, but are not restricted to, the following questions:
We are pleased to provide selected presenters with partial subsidies for accommodation and travel expenses, depending on funding availability and the participant’s needs. We intend to publish selected papers from the workshop as a journal special issue and/or an edited volume with a reputable academic press.
This is an in-person workshop, but we are considering converting it to a virtual or hybrid event.
Submission guidelines
Please email your proposal with a title, an abstract of not more than 500 words in MS Word to hatespeechworkshop@gmail.com, together with your name, position, institutional affiliation and email address by October 31, 2020. (Authors will be notified of abstract acceptance by November 20, 2020). Selected authors will be requested to submit full papers by April 20, 2021.
Please do not hesitate to contact us (hatespeechworkshop@gmail.com) for any questions regarding this workshop.
Organizing Committee:
Myungkoo KANG, Professor Emeritus, Seoul National University, Korea
Marie-Orange RIVÉ, Associate Professor, Université de Paris, France
Wooja KIM, Associate Professor, Ritsumeikan University, Japan
Sojeong PARK, Postdoctoral Researcher, Seoul National University, Korea
Contact Info:
If you have any question, please contact Sojeong Park (hatespeechworkshop@gmail.com).