Perspectives on Contemporary Korea 2018 | Conference Program

Oct 26-27, 2018 | University of Michigan, Ann Arbor MI

Weiser Hall, 10th Fl (500 Church St. Ann Arbor, MI)

Friday, October 26

10:00 Welcome Remarks

Nojin Kwak, Director, Nam Center for Korean Studies and Professor & Chair, Communication Studies, University of Michigan / Juhn Ahn, Associate Professor of Buddhist and Korean Studies, University of Michigan

10:15     Soonil Hwang | Dongguk University

Buddhist Sustainable Happiness

11:15     C.H. Park (Ven. Chŏngdŏk) | Dongguk University

Secular Happiness and Ultimate Happiness in the Story of the Monk Josin’s Dream of the Samguk Yusa

1:00     Mark A. Nathan | University at Buffalo

Buddhism, Meditation, and the Happiness Crisis in South Korea: In Pursuit of Emptiness or Happiness?

2:00     David J. Kim | SUNY Purchase College

Divination and Its Potential Futures: Sensation, Scripts, and the Virtual in South Korean Eight-Character Fortune Telling

3:00     Se-Woong Koo | Korea Exposé

"Happiness Is Here and Now": Repackaging Buddhism for an Ailing Nation

4:00     Keynote Roundtable

Robert Buswell | UCLA
Hwansoo Kim | Yale University
Seong-Uk Kim | Columbia University
Jin Y Park | American University

Saturday, October 27

10:00     Inkyu Kang | Penn State Behrend

Here and Now: The Art and Politics of Happiness of South Korean Millennials

11:00     Song-Chong Lee | University of Findlay

The Ssial as a Paradigmatic Reconciliation on Happiness

12:00     Joseph Owiti | Academy of Korean Studies

Gender, Generation and Church Politics: Café Religiosity as an Answer to Disillusionment with Megachurches in South Korea