#  Na Sil Heo | Raising Korea’s Children: Cold War Liberalism and Decolonization in Postwar South Korea 

 



####  calendar\_today Date and Time 

 **October 22, 2026** 

 04:30PM - 06:00PM EDT 

####  pin\_drop Location 

 **(In-Person) Thomas Chan-Soo Kang Room (S050), CGIS South Building, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA 02138**  



 

 



 

*Korea Colloquium*

**Na Sil Heo**  
Assistant Professor, Department of History, University of South Carolina

Na Sil Heo is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at the University of South Carolina, where she teaches East Asian and global history. Her research focuses on studies of childhood, the cultural Cold War, and gender and sexuality. She received her Ph.D. in East Asian Studies from the University of Toronto and was a Postdoctoral Associate in East Asian Studies and Lecturer in History at Yale University and an Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in the Humanities at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research has been published in the *Journal of Asian Studies* and *Gender & History*.

Chaired by **Sun Joo Kim,** Harvard-Yenching Professor of Korean History, Harvard University

**Abstract:**  
In the aftermath of the Korean War, ordinary South Koreans turned to their children as one of the most important means of imagining and building a new future for the nation. How should one raise children befitting a new postcolonial, postwar, and anti-communist nation? To decolonize the home and imagine new postcolonial futures, Koreans from all walks of life appropriated and implemented various ideals: choice, autonomy, freedom, individuality, and independence. In these everyday efforts to decolonize the home, they rejected their old position of subordination within the Japanese empire’s racial ideology and claimed a new position of racial equality (or even superiority) in the Cold War global order.Drawing from a wide array of sources – childrearing manuals, infant formula advertisements, children’s magazines, and floor plans – this talk demonstrates how Korean parents, childrearing experts, and others involved in the project of raising children collectively staked out South Korea’s claim to be a free, liberal, and democratic nation.

*Generously supported by the Young-Chul Min Memorial Fund at the Korea Institute, Harvard University*



 

 



 

 See also:- [ Korea Colloquium ](/eventtypelecture/korea-colloquium)
 
 

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