A Graduate Student Perspective: Soojin Kim, G2, Anthropology, KI Graduate Summer Research Grant, Summer 2022

Thanks to the generosity of the Korea Institute, I was able to conduct preliminary research for my doctoral project about online data management and erasure. The KI summer research travel grant offered me a great opportunity to explore my potential field sites and the groups of people with whom I hope to further navigate my research journey.

During my stay in Korea, I began with the questions of who wants to remove their online footprints, why they do that, and how such tracing and erasing process intersects with emerging technology, law, gender, and economy in South Korea. I could have fruitful interlocutions with lawyers, media scholars/journalists, and “digital morticians”–the profession that traces and erases online footprints for their clients– regarding the seriousness and plans for preventing defamation, cyberbullying, and online harassment. I learned how the legal discourses in South Korea are newly emerging and have changed around defamation and privacy while comparing how the right to be forgotten is practiced in different media platforms, internet websites, and countries. I could also attend a science forum in Daejeon, where computer scientists at KAIST and other researchers discussed the current issues and plans for "white hacking" and cybersecurity. In doing archival research, including magazines, newspapers, and books, I could broaden my understanding of how Korean laws, governmental policies, and social movements represent internet-based issues and concerns, given the increasing pervasiveness of digital networks and technology in everyday life.  

These experiences, overall, led me to further specify the empirical questions and weave them together for my research. I sincerely appreciate the KI and grant donors who allowed me such insightful experiences in South Korea!