Spaces of Possibility ― In, Between, and Beyond Korea and Japan

Spaces of Possibility, which arose from a 2012 conference held at the University of Washington’s Simpson Center for the Humanities, engages with spaces in, between, and beyond the national borders of Japan and Korea. Some of these spaces involve the ambiguous longings and aesthetic refigurings of the past in the present, the social possibilities that emerge out of the seemingly impossible new spaces of development, the opportunities of genre, and spaces of new ethical subjectivities. Museums, colonial remains, new architectural spaces, graffiti, street theater, popular song, recent movies, photographic topography, and translated literature all serve as keys for unlocking the ambiguous and contradictory—yet powerful—emotions of spaces, whether in Tokyo, Seoul, or New York.

Clark W. Sorensen is professor of international studies and anthropology in the Jackson School of International Studies and director of the Center for Korean Studies at the University of Washington.Andrea Gevurtz Arai is lecturer in the Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington. Contributors: Heekyoung Cho, Heather Hindman, Kyoung-Lae Kang, Tom Looser, Christopher T. Nelson, Robert Oppenheim, Janet Poole, Franz Prichard, and John Whittier Treat.