“Why is gender equality so difficult to attain in South Korea?
Similarities between debates about gender in 1930s colonial Korea and South Korea now”
Prof. Dr. Jerôme de Wit
University of Vienna
Tuesday, 3 March 2026, 3:15-4:45 PM
Forum Asia Pacific, HS 888, Sigmund-Haffner-Gasse 18, 3rd Floor, Salzburg
This talk traces continuities between feminist debates over gender equality in 1930s colonial Korea and contemporary discourse. It examines how pioneering feminists such as Na Hye-seok and Kim Myeongsun articulated demands for women’s autonomy within colonial Korean society. The image of the “New Woman” they helped shape quickly became a powerful symbol of possible empowerment for Korean women;
it also came under swift attack from defenders of the patriarchal order. The talk then turns to contemporary South Korea—exemplified by Cho Nam-ju’s Kim Ji-young, Born 1982—to show how similar demands are voiced today and how feminist interventions continue to face fierce backlash.
Through a comparative analysis of texts, media responses, and public controversies across these two eras, the talk identifies strikingly similar patterns of countermobilization against feminist demands: moral panic over “disorder,” the pathologization of women’s dissent, appeals to tradition and national survival, and the framing of gender equality as selfish, destabilizing, or foreign. By highlighting these recurring tropes, the talk explains the persistence of resistance to gender equality in contemporary Korean society, while also underscoring the indefatigable struggles of South Korean women to effect change.
Jerôme de Wit is a Professor in the Department of Korean Studies at the University of Vienna. He is a specialist on North and South Korean wartime literature and Korean-Chinese culture.
His most recent project deals with the long-term effects of North and South Korean wartime literature on shaping narratives and the representation of the (North/South) Korean Other.
He is furthermore pursuing a study on the constantly changing representations of identity in the literature, movies, and music of ethnic Koreans in China due to historical and social changes in Korean-Chinese society.
“Okinawa. Report from the Ryūkyū Archipelago”
Prof. Dr. phil. Dr. habil. Univ.-Prof. h.c. Dr. iur. h.c. Matthias Theodor Vogt
Rome
Tuesday, 10 March 2026, 1:15-2:45 PM
Forum Asia Pacific, HS 888, Sigmund-Haffner-Gasse 18, 3rd Floor, Salzburg
One of the most conflict-ridden and, at the same time, culturally and politically fascinating regions in the world is the eastern hinterland of Taiwan, the Japanese prefecture of Okinawa on the Ryūkyū Archipelago, which stretches for around 1,000 km . If the People’s Republic of China were to occupy Taiwan and divide Okinawa, its ships would have free passage into the Pacific and would pose a serious threat to the pax Americana. How does China support the independence movement in Okinawa, and why did President Xi Jinping go to the state archives in 2024 to view a treaty with Japan? According to this treaty, which was negotiated between the then empires of China and Japan but not signed in the short term, the then Kingdom of Ryūkyū (Chinese name) or Okinawa (Japanese name) was to be divided between the powers.
The memory of the Battle of Okinawa in 1945, in which Japanese troops drove tens of thousands of locals to suicide, weighs heavily on the islands. No less heavy is the burden of the largest US occupation force in the world, with its unpunished rapes. At the same time, the coral beaches attract thousands of tourists to the “Japanese Hawaii.”
In his report on his current research in the Ryūkyū Archipelago, Matthias Theodor Vogt explores the question of whether the southern tip of the Japanese Empire actually belongs to Japan in geological, biological, linguistic, cultural, and historical terms, or whether it is more of a separate territory.
Matthias Theodor Vogt, Prof. Dr. phil. Dr. habil. Univ.-Prof. h.c. Dr. iur. h.c., born in Rome, visiting professor at Kobe University, Toyooka College of Arts and Culture, Sophia University Tokyo, Japan (fall semester 2024), among others. Founding director of the Saxon Institute for Cultural Infrastructure; since 1994. Research areas: cultural policy studies; cultural history of Europe, in particular cultural transformation processes; minority issues, interculturality, contemporary music theater. Since 1983, regular teaching in German, English, French, and Italian at more than 60 universities worldwide. Author, co-author, editor, co-editor, and contributor to around 400 books and articles. https://kultur.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/Vogt_CV_lang_2023-12-28.pdf
In addition, Professor Vogt is offering the following event in connection with an upcoming exhibition in Dresden:
“How do you translate Mongolia’s nature and society into an exhibition? From the workshop of the major exhibition ‘Steppenwächter’ (Dresden, Japanese Palace, April 15, 2027).”
Tuesday, 10 March 2026, 10:00 am-12:00 pm
Forum Asia Pacific, HS 888, Sigmund-Haffner-Gasse 18, 3rd Floor, Salzburg
The world’s most intact grassland, Mongolia, with its endless expanse of 1.5 million km² under an eternally blue sky, is also home to the only true democracy between Poland and Japan and has historically and currently had to assert itself between the two giant empires of China and Russia.
The steppe grasslands are by no means simply natural; rather, they are the result of thousands of years of grazing by nomadic herders, whose sheep, goats, yaks, horses, and camels have had a decisive impact on the biomass through the transport of plant seeds and grazing. The herders of Mongolia are therefore “steppe guardians” in a very broad sense. The major exhibition “Steppe Guardians” (Dresden, Japanese Palace, April 2027), currently in preparation, will be the first ever public exhibition to present the nomads’ struggle for ecological balance as the basis of their family economy, combining current scientific and cultural findings in human ecology.
But how does one translate the nature and society of Mongolia into an exhibition? How is Mongolia responding to the tremendous population growth that has made Ulaanbaatar one of the dirtiest capitals in the world? In his workshop report, Matthias Theodor Vogt presents some of his thoughts for discussion with all those interested in the construction and deconstruction of powerful myths.
“Narrative Nurturing at Memory Sites: Creation, Acceptance and Contestation of Cultural Narratives in Experiences of Heritage Consumption in Bukchon, Seoul”
Dr. Matthias Glaser
University of Salzburg
Tuesday, 14 April 2026, 3:15-4:45 p.m.
Forum Asia Pacific, HS 888, Sigmund-Haffner-Gasse 18, 3rd Floor, Salzburg
Korean heritage sites are beacons of cultural memory and are subject to cultural narratives. Cultural narratives from official sources, such as tourist information at heritage sites, convey a unified narrative. However, such official narratives are contested in society, e.g., their cultural representativeness is rejected. Yet, prior research often focuses on official narratives in Korean society, resulting in a one-sided picture of Korean discourse about cultural heritage as monolithic and uncontested. Therefore, I examine the role of official narratives in the consumer experience of the heritage neighborhood Bukchon in Seoul. A study of online reviews of Bukchon shows that visitors’ consumption experiences indicate support for and contestation of official narratives but also creation of new narratives. The experiences have a wide spectrum of content, which contrasts with monolithic views of societal heritage discourse. This talks suggests a more balanced view of Korean heritage and identity discourse by shedding light on the dynamics of “narrative nurturing” between official representations of heritage, and the societal discourse that negotiates its cultural meaning.
Before teaching and conducting research at the University of Salzburg, Matthias Glaser gained experience at the University of Vienna, where he earned his doctorate in marketing. In addition to business administration, he also studied Korean studies and spent a semester abroad at Yonsei University in South Korea. His research focuses on narratives and consumer behavior (marketing), among other topics.
“Collective Curating in Global Contexts: Europe and Asia-Pacific”
Prof. Nicole Haitzinger and Timothy Nouzak
University of Salzburg
Tuesday, 28 April 2026, 3:15-4:45 p.m.
Sigmund-Haffner-Gasse 18, 3rd Floor, HS 888, Salzburg
In the current geopolitical context of polarization, collective curating takes on specific relevance in the circulation of knowledge and practices between Europe and Asia-Pacific. In this co-presentation, we would like to discuss its sociocultural function beyond an entertainment culture based on production logic or monocultural aesthetic paradigms. According to our thesis, improvisation-based scores, dance- and performance-related practices, and playful, grassroots democratic decision-making processes have the potential to decentralize curatorial authority—for example, when groups calibrate their perceptions through physical tuning-in before decision-making processes. Using examples from dance and performance, we discuss how feedback cultures, tacit knowledge, and their situated curation can be collectively experienced as a trans-local practice.
“Wuju (舞剧): Colossal Spectacle between Cultural Renaissance and Geopolitics”
Dr. Ruard Absaroka
University of Salzburg
Tuesday, 19 May 2026, 3:15-4:45 p.m.
Forum Asia Pacific, Sigmund-Haffner-Gasse 18, 3rd Floor, HS 888, Salzburg
tba
“Healing and ruling — Japan’s colonial regime and medicine in Korea and Taiwan: How the Japanese Empire used medicine as a tool of colonial rule and what traces this has left in the culture of remembrance to this day”
Dr. Bernhard Leitner
Medical University Vienna
Tuesday, 9 June 2026, 3:15-4:45 p.m.
Forum Asia Pacific, Sigmund-Haffner-Gasse 18, 3rd Floor, HS 888, Salzburg
In 1882, Heinrich Obersteiner founded the world’s first neurological institute in Vienna. This Viennese institution attracted particular interest from the other side of the world, in Japan. At a critical stage in Japan’s reorientation, the innovative research approaches and methods not only offered the opportunity to gain international prestige, but also promised to contribute to economic productivity and the formation of national unity. Will this new knowledge ultimately find its way from the academic elite of the University of Tokyo to the rest of Japan’s emerging prefectures, and even to the new colonies? How did medicine contribute to the consolidation of the colonial regimes in Korea and Taiwan? Did the different significance of Korea and Taiwan for the Japanese Empire also affect their respective medical and scientific systems, and can this still be seen today in the memory culture of the two countries? In addition to these questions, the lecture will provide an introduction to the political dynamics that enabled Japan to become a colonial power competitive with Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Bernhard Leitner studied Japanese Studies and Philosophy at the University of Vienna and Tokyo Metropolitan University. In his doctoral thesis, he reconstructed collaborations between the universities of Vienna and Tokyo in psychiatry and neurology around 1900. He was a Toshiba Foundation Fellow, a fellow at the IFK (International Research Center for Cultural Studies in Vienna), at the Department of the History of Science at Harvard University, and at the Friedrich Schiedel Chair for Sociology of Science at the Technical University of Munich. As a Soon-Young Kim Fellow for the History of Science in East Asia at the Needham Research Institute and as a visiting scholar at the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge, he developed a project on the colonial legacy of medical research between Europe and East Asia. He continued this project at the Dipartimento di Studi sull’Asia e sull’Africa Mediterranea at the Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia. He currently researches and teaches at the Institute for Ethics, Collections, and History of Medicine at the Medical University of Vienna.
“The exhausted self on travel:
Empirical insights into spiritual tourism in Thailand and Austria”
Dr. Thomas Herdin
University of Salzburg
Tuesday, 16 June, 2026, 3:15-4:45 p.m.
Forum Asia Pacific, Sigmund-Haffner-Gasse 18, 3rd Floor, HS 888, Salzburg
The lecture presents key findings from the research project Revitalizing the Exhausted Self, which examines spiritual tourism as a response to social overload, loss of meaning, and mental exhaustion in late modern Western societies. Theoretically, the study is interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary in nature and analyzes the “exhausted self,” tendencies toward alienation, and postmodern forms of spirituality and well-being in the context of contemporary experiences of crisis.The lecture focuses on the empirical part of the project, in particular the qualitative field research on Koh Phangan in Thailand. This includes expert interviews with providers of spiritual retreats, problem-centered interviews with Western participants, and ethnographic and autoethnographic observations. In addition, qualitative interviews were conducted with local actors to capture their perceptions of Western-influenced spiritual tourism.
A key feature of the project is the close research collaboration with Thai colleagues who are involved in data collection, analysis, and interpretation. This collaboration enables a de-Westernized approach and reveals local interpretations, areas of tension, and ambivalences in spiritual tourism practices. Finally, comparative findings between Austria and Thailand are discussed and their significance for current debates on well-being, spirituality, and the search for meaning is reflected upon.
Dr. Thomas Herdin is an associate professor of communication studies at the University of Salzburg and heads the Department of Transcultural Communication.
His work focuses on the intersection of intercultural competence and cultural resilience, digital self-care and mindful communication, intercultural management, value change, and tourism research.
He lived in Asia for seven years from 1995 to 2001 and continues to conduct regular research projects in this region.
In addition to his academic work, Thomas Herdin is a psychosocial counselor, trained coach, and breathwork trainer.
“The competition between Japan and China for dominance in the region since the beginning of the 21st century” (not final title)
Prof. Dr. Susanne Weigelin-Schwiedrzik
University of Vienna
Tuesday, 23 June, 2026, 3:15-4:45 p.m.
Forum Asia Pacific, Sigmund-Haffner-Gasse 18, 3rd Floor, HS 888, Salzburg
tba
