Project Description
This research will contribute toward a book-length project that is in its early stages as a work-in-progress, “Cosmopolitan Claims, Contested Histories: Korean Memory Politics, Global Public History, and UNESCO.” The larger project explores how various groups and individuals – including state actors and grassroots activists – have engaged with UNESCO through appeals, strategies, and responses regarding UNESCO’s role as the de facto space of global arbitration for disputes over contested histories and cultural heritage. The specific circumstances of Korea offer an unusually rich context for exploring the transnational issues surrounding contested national histories, insofar as the complexity of Korean memory politics has been shaped by ongoing national division, rapid postwar economic transformation, residual modern legacies of its 1910-1945 colonial period under Japanese occupation, and a contemporary zeitgeist that highly privileges cosmopolitanism. I explore the varied meanings that UNESCO has come to assume over time in contemporary South Korea, where cosmopolitanism and global status signify the most coveted markers of identity on a personal, institutional, and national scale. While one might presume such aspirations reflect the desire to transcend or escape from the parochial conflicts of a divided nation, appropriations of global recognition in fact continue to figure highly into contested national histories, not only between the two Korean states but also within South Korea.
The objectives of this research project would be to document some of the social and institutional processes in South Korea surrounding the securing of UNESCO world-heritage designations. This represents an area of memory politics that has both stirred nationalist ambitions and at times fueled broader historical controversies that have transnational dimensions. The methodology for this project would entail several aspects of qualitative research: (1) locating documents and other materials while doing initial triage to determine the usefulness of particular sources; (2) translations of documents in order to facilitate the ongoing research by the faculty member; (3) qualitative coding of those documents based on keywords, key phrases, and research themes, which would be discussed between the faculty mentor and student; (4) transcription of related audio recordings; and (5) analytical discussions with the mentor to evaluate patterns and questions emerging from the sources. Throughout the project, the student would also keep a research journal in order to keep track of her own reflections and the development of her thinking about the topics under examination.
Tasks and Responsibilites
The student’s tasks would be to do translations and basic qualitative coding of materials related to three aspects of the project: (1) the institutional process surrounding the application for UNESCO world-heritage designation; (2) portrayals in the Korean-language popular media of specific UNESCO world-heritage designations and related controversies; and (3) two case studies (among the several analyzed in the book) regarding the UNESCO World Natural Heritage designation for a particular set of sites on Jeju Island, and the UNESCO Memory of the World Programme inscription that recognizes an economic-development mobilization campaign of the 1970s. The student would work with materials that have already been collected by the faculty member, and she would be asked to locate additional electronic materials available through the Internet, as well as leads for future archival research to be pursued by the faculty member and/or a collaborator based in Korea. Regarding topic #3, the student would transcribe audio-recordings of research interviews that have been conducted by the faculty member and/or a research collaborator in Korea.
Desired Qualifications
Korean Language