The Center for Korean Studies is pleased to host the prominent annual forum, The 14th Critical Issues Forum on Korean Studies with a presentation titled Transmedia Ecologies of Korean “New Retro".
February 8th, 2024: Critical Issues Forum Lecture
- Speaker: Michelle Cho, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of East Asian Popular Cultures and Cinema Studies, University of Toronto.
- When: Thursday,February 8th, 2024 at 3:30PM -5:00PM
- Where: Center for Korean Studies Auditorium (1881 East-West Road, Honolulu, HI)
Dr. Cho's presentation probes the multiple genealogies of “new retro”(aka “뉴트로”)—contemporary South Korean pop culture’s drive to an imagined past as the dominant aesthetic register of the current zeitgeist. The talk will situate the ubiquity of nostalgia-tinged portrayals of late ‘80s and ‘90s youth culture as an inescapable popular aesthetic in film and television (e.g., tvN’s Reply (응답하라) series (2012-16), a watershed of 21st century popular media that selfreflexively
portrays the impact of commercial popular media on the social transformations of the post- authoritarian period), then move to the transmedia domains of City Pop and related genres of music and media production driven by digital distribution and platform engagement. Dr. Cho argues that the aesthetics and sensoria of new retro illuminate the social impacts and ideological effects of contemporary parasocial engagement, to suggest that the trendiness of retro aesthetics today serves a diagnostic function, as the visible trace of global media entanglements of both human and algorithmic agency.
Speaker:
Michelle Cho, Ph.D, Dr. Cho is Assistant Professor of East Asian Popular Cultures and Cinema Studies at the University of Toronto. Her published work explores contemporary South Korean genre cinemas, Korean television, K-Pop’s politicization on digital platforms, and histories of race and racialization in K-Pop and its fandoms.
Moderator:
Dr. Young-A Park, Associate Professor of Asian Studies, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.
February 9, 2024: A Conversation with Dr. Cho
On the second day, there will be a second event titled, Critical Approachs to Hallyu: A Conversation with Dr. Michelle Cho and Dr. S. Heijin Lee.
- When: Friday, February 9, 2024 at 10:30am- 12:00pm
- Where: Center for Korean Studies Conference Room.
The Center for Korean Studies events are free and open to all. For further information, including information regarding disability access, telephone the Center for Korean Studies at 808-956-7041. This event is supported by the Doo Wook & Helen Nahm Choy Fund. The University of Hawai‘i is an equal opportunity/affirmative action institution.