2023 10th Korean Screen Culture Conference Report

Between 30 November and 2 December 2023, Monash University Korean Studies Research Hub (MUKSRH) successfully held the 10^th Korean Screen Cultures Conference (KSCC 2023) at Monash University’s Clayton Campus in Melbourne. The KSCC was held as part of MUKSRH’s ‘Monash Korean Studies Beyond Borders Conferences’ series supported by the AKS Core 2.0 grant.

Over the 3-day period, there were a total of 12 panels as well as 1 keynote talk. 38 speakers (17 on site and 21 online) representing tertiary level institutions in 10 different countries spoke on different aspects of Korean screen culture including instatoons, South and North Korean movies, K-dramas, YouTube videos and K-pop. This was the largest KSCC ever held and the first to be held outside Europe and in hybrid fashion. This was also the first time that presenters spoke about topics like the uses of K-pop and K-drama in pedagogy and linguistic approaches were complemented by other diverse perspectives on the impact of Korean screen cultures outside the Peninsula. Introductory comments were provided by his excellency the Republic of Korea Consul-General to Melbourne Mr Changhoon Yi who spoke of the rapid global spread of Hallyu– a development that has brought South Korea global cultural recognition. Professor Jo Winning introduced the conference by situating it within the overall research and educational strategy of Monash Korean Studies. Andy Jackson discussed the history of the KSCC from its early development in the UK and its spread to other academic institutions in Germany, Denmark and Finland.

Technically, this year’s event was the 12^th KSCC to be held, however, it is the 10^th to be held with a face-to-face component, since the 2020-2021 pandemic disrupted its organisation at universities in Germany (Tuebingen). Jo Elfving-Hwang provided an insight into historical K-dramas in her keynote address and the best paper awards were won by Sarah Molisso of City University, London for her paper on feminist instatoons and by Spencer Hines of UniMelb for his indepth analysis of Hong Sang-soo’s filmmaking techniques. A big thank you to the KSCC2023 committee, all the panel chairs, the Republic of Korea Consulate to Melbourne, the LLCL, Tae Kim, Eleena Chang and MUKSRH Hub Coordinator Sandy Nguyen for helping to put this together.

Check out some of the presentations here.

This work was supported by the Core University Program for Korean Studies through the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and Korean Studies Promotion Service of the Academy of Korean Studies (AKS-2023-OLU-2250001).