[KS] Upcoming Monash Korean Studies Seminar

[Sandy Nguyen]

Dear KS List members, please note the forthcoming seminar. Best, Sandy

Monash University Korean Studies Modern History Seminar / LLCL Research
Seminar:

Reassessing the Place of the Inch’ŏn and the Konkuk University violence in
the history of the South Korean Democratization Movement

Location: Monash University, Clayton Campus, 12 Ancora Imparo Way,
Clayton-G-G17-LLCL Auditorium (Arts), Melbourne, Australia.

Abstract: Reassessing the Place of the Inch’ŏn and the Konkuk University
violence in the history of the South Korean Democratization Movement

1986 saw two of the most violent outbreaks of anti-Chun Doon-hwan protests
since the 1980 Kwangju Uprising. In May 1986, the city center of Inch’ŏn
exploded in a day-long pitched battle between riot police and protestors as
well as factional violence amongst opposing groups. The following November
saw an extended siege at Konkuk University’s Seoul campus during which
students battled riot police. In the aftermath of the violence, the
government launched a massive roundup of anti-dictatorship activists, which
Chun Doo-hwan believed would silence his most vocal opponents. In actual
fact, the opposite happened, and anti-dictatorship activism expanded. In
the historical memorialization of the South Korean Democratization
movement, the incidents at Inch’ŏn and Konkuk University have been largely
overshadowed by other events, such as the 1980 Kwangju Uprising. In this
paper, I argue that Inch’ŏn and Konkuk University were central to the
unrest that toppled Chun Doo-hwan’s rule and ended three decades of
military rule. I use contemporary South Korean and US news reports, oral
testimonies, declassified CIA documents, and police arrest reports to
investigate the events at Inch’ŏn and Konkuk University. As part of this
analysis, I consider the role of political violence, ideology, contingency
and the geopolitical situation in steering the South Korean people towards
democratic transition.

Speaker Bio:

Andrew David Jackson is Associate Professor and Director of Monash
University Korean Studies Research Hub (MUKSRH) at Monash University,
Melbourne where he has worked since 2017. He is the author of The Musin
Rebellion: Politics and Rebellion in Eighteenth-Century Korea, published
with the University of Hawai`i Press (2016), and The Late and
Post-dictatorship Cinephilia Boom and Art Houses in South Korea, published
by Edinburgh University Press (2023). He is currently working on a history
of social unrest in South Korea.

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Kind Regards,

Sandy Nguyen

*MUKSRH Coordinator*

Website: Monash Korean Studies Research Hub
<https://www.monash.edu/arts/languages-literatures-cultures-linguistics/korean-studies-research-hub>

Facebook: MonashUniKorean <https://www.facebook.com/monashunikorean.edu/>

Twitter: @MonashUniKorean <https://twitter.com/MonashUniKorean>
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