Faculty Associate Thomas Klassen (School of Public Policy and Administration) is recipient of a YCAR Publication Fund to support the preparation of an edited book manuscript titled “Contemporary Korean Culture from the Edge” to be published by Lexington Books.
The book, co-edited by YCAR alumna Jooyeon Rhee (Penn State University), Faculty Associate Hong Kal (Visual Art & Art History) and Klassen, departs from existing edited books on modern Korean culture by investigating unconventional sources of popular culture: street fashion, feminist art, female pro-gamers, queer literature and film, and television programs that feature neurodivergent characters.
The chapters, from contributors drawn from around the world, highlight important cultural movements and events that have significantly changed the cultural landscape of Korea. The contributors to this volume critically examine cultural phenomena through specific case studies, including the cultural politics in the 21st century, the globalization of Korean food, transgressive street fashion, older adults’ romance in cinema, gender in gaming/esports, “healing” TV programs, sociological and musicological analyses of K-pop, the bricolage building of architecture and urbanism, LGBTQ fiction, feminist art, and socially engaged art.