Date:
Location:
Workshops and Conferences
Co-organized by the Korea Institute and the Committee on the Study of Religion
Jane Hong
Associate Professor, History, Occidental College
"How Post-1965 Korean Immigrants and Their Children Are Changing U.S. Evangelicalism"
Abstract:
Korean Americans compose the plurality of Asian American evangelicals and the most highly churched U.S. Asian population, reflecting the longstanding overrepresentation of Protestants among Korean immigrants to the U.S. Korean American Protestant communities are highly robust, and some draw on the strength of South Korean Protestants and their institutions. Yet many U.S. Protestant institutions and organizations are resoundingly white, and white supremacy and colorblind racism inevitably affect Korean Americans’ religious lives and practice. This paper explores how post-1965 Korean immigrants and their children have transformed U.S. evangelicalism via some of its most storied institutions and organizations, while gaining a newfound visibility within them.
Helen Jin Kim
Associate Professor of American Religious History; Interim Director of the Master of Theological Studies Program, Emory University
"Betwixt and Between: World Christianity and Ethnic Studies"
Abstract:
What frameworks and methods are most suitable for studying religion and the Korean diaspora? I argue for historical narratives that work betwixt and between the fields of World Christianity and ethnic studies. Both discourses emerged in the late-twentieth century as decolonial critiques, but largely approached “religion,” especially Christianity, with different commitments. I suggest that historians can critically engage a fuller cast of characters, especially in transpacific context, when working betwixt and between these two cognate but, at times, clashing paradigms. I offer an example from Race for Revival, and my new work on gender and charismatic Christianity.
Sandra H. Park
Assistant Professor in the Department of East Asian Studies, University of Arizona
"Savior or Sinner?: Hyun Bong-hak and the (Un-)Making of a Cold War Moses Between South Korea and US Empire"
Abstract:
Today a statue of Korean American Hyun Bong-hak (1922–2007) greets passersby in the square of Yonsei University’s Severance Building in downtown Seoul. Unveiled in 2016, the statue seeks to immortalize the doctor’s role as “Moses” in the US military’s evacuation of 98,100 North Korean civilians—particularly Christians—from Communist rule during the Korean War (1950–53). Before his death, however, Hyun confessed in a published interview that he was “a sinner” who permanently separated 98,1000 people from their families. Moreover, Hyun urged fellow Koreans to pursue a radically inclusive Christian love that could embrace one’s enemy, including North Korea’s head of state. In my paper, I argue that Hyun’s conflicted and even tormented reckoning with his wartime actions reveals ways in which Hyun’s diasporic experience and progressive-leaning Christian theology disrupt hegemonic memory-making projects of the South Korean state and US military empire.
Discussant: Paul Y. Chang, Associate Professor of Sociology, Harvard University
Chairs: Nicholas Harkness, Modern Korean Economy and Society Professor of Anthropology; Director, Korea Institute, Harvard University and Catherine Brekus, Charles Warren Professor of the History of Religion in America; Chair of the Committee on the Study of Religion (FAS)
3:00pm-3:10pm: Welcome and Introduction
Nicholas Harkness, Modern Korean Economy and Society Professor of Anthropology; Director, Harvard Korea Institute
Catherine Brekus, Charles Warren Professor of the History of Religion in America; Chair of the Committee on the Study of Religion
3:10pm-3:40pm: "Savior or Sinner?: Hyun Bong-hak and the (Un-)Making of a Cold War Moses Between South Korea and US Empire"
Sandra H. Park, Assistant Professor of East Asian Studies, University of Arizona
3:40pm-4:10pm: "How Post-1965 Korean Immigrants and Their Children Are Changing U.S. Evangelicalism"
Jane Hong, Associate Professor of History, Occidental College
4:10pm-4:20pm: BREAK
4:20pm-4:50pm: "Betwixt and Between: World Christianity and Ethnic Studies"
Helen Jin Kim, Associate Professor of American Religious History; Interim Director of the Master of Theological Studies Program, Emory University
4:50pm-5:20pm: Response & Discussion
Paul Chang, Associate Professor of Sociology, Harvard University
5:20pm-6:00pm: Audience Q&A
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To attend this online event, please register here.
Generously supported by the Jeffrey D. and Jean K. Lee Fund at the Harvard Korea Institute