Course Details
912: South Korea's Decade of Democratization
July 7-11
9:45 AM -
11:15 AM
In-Person
The 1980s in South Korea was the culmination of the democratization movement. This decade began with the assassination in 1979 of the dictator who assumed power in 1963, Park Chung-hee, followed by the military coup and subsequent series of uprisings, including the Gwangju Uprising of May 1980, which was violently suppressed by the military. In 1987 this movement was ultimately successful in establishing an electoral process controlled by the people. Class sessions will involve discussions covering the background leading up to specific events, Korean films covering this period, and discussion of how these events and movement have shaped Korean society, including the recent impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol.
View Syllabus
Class Type: Lecture and Discussion
Class Format: In-Person
Hours of Reading: Less than 1 hour/session
Study Group Leader(s):
Glinda CooperGlinda Cooper is an epidemiologist, with a doctorate from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and MS degree from Harvard School of Public Health. Her career included research on autoimmune diseases at the National Institutes of Health, health effects of chemical exposures at the US Environmental Protection Agency, and forensic science at the Innocence Project. Since retiring in 2021 she has focused her attention on Korean films and K-dramas.
Hyun Seon ParkHyun Seon Park is Assistant Professor at George Mason University. She received her doctorate in East Asian Studies from University of California-Irvine, completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Yonsei University, and was Associate Research Professor at Sogang University in Korea. Her research focuses on Cold War culture in Asia and on various movements within Korean cinema, including 1960’s Film Noir and Cine-Feminism.