Dialogues on Gender Inequality in South Korea and the UK

2021年，韩国和英国都将认真考虑性别不平等和偏见的影响。该网络旨在建立一个跨文化对话，探讨语言、文学和艺术如何介入社会中的性别不平等问题。它将汇集来自英国和韩国的学者，横跨文学研究和社会科学，探索文本的国际流通，以及#metoo时代的阅读和写作政治。该项目将以两次专题讨论会、两次研讨会和两次访问讲座为中心，以调查英国和韩国在性别不平等问题上的文化交流。实地考察将包括面向学生的以研究为主导的研讨会，探讨#metoo运动后性别不平等的语言和象征意义。在网络的中心结构之外，我们将共同努力，为东道国院校之间未来的合作和更密切的联系寻找一系列机会。韩国的性别不平等问题由来已久，在过去五年中达到了高潮。在2016年的“江南站谋杀案”之后，全球#metoo运动在首尔得到了关注，活动人士抗议儒家父权结构对女性的影响这一更广泛的问题。尽管韩国的女性受教育程度是经合组织成员国中最高的，但该国37%的性别收入差距是经合组织成员国中最大的，远远超过成员国平均水平（14%）的两倍。女性的平均收入是男性的63%”（Foster-Carter, 2019）。在全球性别差距指数中，韩国排在第102位（世界经济论坛，2021年）。然而，韩国的女权运动遭到了广泛的反对。从纸面上看，英国关于性别不平等的统计数据呈现出更为积极的一面，在2021年全球性别差距指数中，英国排名第23位。然而，这些统计数据掩盖了一种文化，在这种文化中，机构中关于平等机会的公共话语掩盖了结构性不平等和偏见，而新冠疫情凸显和加剧了这种不平等和偏见。2021年8月普利茅斯的Incel恐怖分子枪击事件，莎拉·埃弗拉德的谋杀案引发了全国性的抗议活动。然而，作为全国对话的一部分，英国尚未直接以非人性化和性化的语言解决基于性别的暴力的根源。该项目将语言、文学和艺术作为研究性别不平等和暴力的中心，重点关注两国在这一领域充满活力的跨文化交流。它强调理解文学文本和重新使用的单词和短语如何在这些文化中施加影响，以解决不平等问题，反过来，也会造成不平等。它调查了在韩国和英国文化中，书面文字是如何被浓缩并被用来对抗不平等的。考虑到性别平等是联合国可持续发展目标之一，它也更广泛地询问艺术中的跨文化对话如何在面对性和性别不平等的情况下提供灵感和社区，研究语言和文学可以被武器化的方式，以及在哪些论坛上挑战韩国和英国的性和性别不平等。研讨会和讲习班将以英语进行，所有核心参与者都精通英语，其主要重点是术语和思想的英语流通（韩国语为英语，韩国语翻译成英语）。这就是说，我们欢迎并将在指定参与者的支持下促进对翻译实践的讨论。在首尔举行的活动中，将把文字和播客内容翻译成韩国语。

In 2021 South Korea and the UK are each reckoning with the effects of sexual and gender inequality and prejudice. This network aims to establish a cross-cultural dialogue on how language, literature, and the arts intervene on issues of gender inequality in society. It will bring together scholars from the UK and South Korea, across literary studies and the social sciences, to explore the international circulation of texts, and the politics of reading and writing in the era of #metoo. The project will centre on two symposia, two workshops, and two visiting lectures, in order to investigate cultural exchange in discourses of gender inequality between the UK and South Korea. The field trips will include student-facing research-led workshops to explore the language and symbolism of gender inequalities in the wake of #metoo. Beyond the central structures of the network, we will work together to scope a range of opportunities for future collaboration and closer ties between the host institutions.The problem of gender inequality in South Korea is long-standing and it has come to a climax in the past five years. Following the femicide 'Gangnam Station murder case' in 2016, the global #metoo movement gained traction in Seoul with activists protesting against the wider issue of how Confucian, patriarchal structures bear on women. Despite the fact that South Korea has the most highly educated female population in the OECD, 'the country's gender pay gap of 37% is OECD's largest, far more than twice the average in member states (14%). Average female earnings are 63% of male ones' (Foster-Carter, 2019). In the Global Gender Gap Index, South Korea is ranked 102nd (World Economic Forum, 2021). Yet feminist movements in South Korea have experienced a widespread backlash.On paper, the UK's statistics on gender inequality present a more positive picture, with the country ranked 23rd in the 2021 Global Gender Gap Index. However, such statistics mask a culture in which the public discourse on equal opportunities embedded in institutions obfuscate the structural inequalities and prejudices, highlighted and heightened by the Covid pandemic. The Incel terrorist shooting in Plymouth in August 2021, Sarah Everard's murder case have catalysed national protests. However, the UK is yet to directly address the bases of gender-based violence in dehumanizing and sexualized language, as part of a national conversation. The proposed project puts language, literature and the arts at the centre of its enquiry into gender inequality and violence, focusing on the vibrant cross-cultural exchanges between the two countries in this area. It puts emphasis on understanding how literary texts and reappropriated words and phrases have exerted influence across these cultures to both readdress inequalities and - contrariwise - to perpetrate them. It investigates how the written word has encapsulated and been weaponized against inequality across South Korean and UK cultures. Mindful that Gender Equality is one of the UN Sustainable Development Goals it asks more broadly too how cross-cultural dialogues in the arts have provided inspiration and community in the face of sexual and gender inequality, looking at the ways in which language and literature can be weaponized, and in what forums, to challenge sexual and gender inequality in South Korea and the UK. The symposia and workshops will take place in English, with all core participants fluent in English, and its main stated focus is the English-language circulation of terms and ideas (English in South Korea; Korean translated into English). This said, we welcome and will promote the discussion of translation practices with support from named participants. The written and podcast outputs will be translated into Korean and translation will be available for the Seoul-based events.