[Apr 3] Recipes for Everyday Life Politics in Global Korea

Date: April 3, 2024 (Wed)

Time: 4:30 pm

Venue: CPD-LG.59, Centennial Campus, HKU

Speaker: Professor Hyaeweol Choi

2024 President of Association of Asian Studies &

Chair, Department of Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies*

Professor, Department of Religious Studies, The University of Iowa

Abstract

Food literally connects us to everything from microorganisms to national politics, the global economy, and the environment. Food also helps us understand the mobility of people, ideas, and materials across time and space. Food cultures have been shaped and transformed by this mobility and the particular historical contexts in which they emerge. In this talk, Prof. Choi takes food as a useful lens for rethinking the connections between food and gender politics. To illustrate, she focuses specifically on the gendered history of street food in South Korea and how it has evolved through the forces of war and international conflict, poverty and the informal economy, and nation branding in the age of globalization. Using archival research, ethnographic fieldwork, and media analysis, she examines the everyday life politics of how women as street food vendors have entered the public sphere to survive, support their families, and empower themselves.

All are welcome. No registration is required.

For enquiries, please contact Dr. Paul S. Cha at pcha@hku.hk