Past Events 2023
Guest Speaker Series
Speaker: Professor Jungmin Kwon
Portland State University
Date: March 31st, 2023 at 11:00 AM-12:00 PM PT
Location: HC 2290
K(Q)ueer-Pop: Queer Practices in K-Pop, Commodification, and Queer Audiences
In this talk, Dr. Kwon argues that the K-pop space, which on one level appears to be homogeneously cishetpatriarchal, actually encompasses multiple configurations of gender and sexual identity. She suggests a new term, K(Q)ueerness meaning the aesthetics, imaginations, practices, performances, and ideas of K-pop players sublate binaristic identifications, including masculinity and femininity and heterosexual and homosexual—as well as Butler’s distinction between performance and performativity—to embrace the multifarious expressions of gender and sexuality surrounding K-pop. Dr. Kwon presents diverse modalities of K(Q)ueerness and emphasizes the importance of increasing queer sensibility within the K-pop studies discipline and K-pop fan communities. In addition, based on her interviews with queer-identified audiences, she responds to the critiques toward the commodification of queerness in the K-pop industry and unpacks the ways in which it contributes to queer visibility in Korean society.
Guest Speaker Series
Speaker: Professor Ji Hoon Park
School of Media and Communication
Korea University
Date: January 30, 2023 at 11:15 AM-12:15 PM PT
Location: HC 2270 (room updated)
Netflix and Platform Imperialism: How Netflix Alters the Ecology of the Korean TV Drama Industry
Applying the concept of platform imperialism, Park discusses how Netflix has altered the practices of Korean drama production. Despite Netflix’s positive contributions to increasing the reputation of Korean dramas, Netflix’s aggressive international content strategies pose a significant challenge to the Korean media industry. Because Netflix acquires all IP rights to Netflix Korean originals and the global streaming rights to numerous Korean dramas, neither production companies nor Korean television stations gain profits commensurate with the global popularity of Korean dramas. Netflix’s strategic use of the Korean Wave and the aggressive acquisition of the streaming rights of Korean dramas may ultimately work to consolidate platform imperialism.