Expert on K-pop to keynote Year of Korea opening ceremony

A UCLA professor will help formally kick off the Year of Korea at SUNY Oswego on Sept. 14 with a keynote presentation titled "The Many Faces of K-pop Music Videos."

Dr. Suk-Young Kim, professor of critical studies and director of the Center for Performance Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, will speak at 3 p.m. that Friday in the college's Marano Campus Center auditorium (Room 132). The event is part of the Year of Korea's opening ceremony, which is free and open to the public. 

Kim’s latest book, "K-pop Live: Fans, Idols and Multimedia Performance," follows her award-winning 2014 book "DMZ Crossing: Performing Emotional Citizenship Along the Korean Border." Her research and commentary have been featured on CNN and NPR.

"K-pop has become a truly global phenomenon thanks to its distinctive blend of addictive melodies, slick choreography and production values, and an endless parade of attractive South Korean performers who spend years in grueling studio systems learning to sing and dance in synchronized perfection," wrote the news website Vox.

The SUNY Oswego Institute for Global Engagement (IGE), organizer of the college's annual "Year of" series, plans numerous events in 2018-19 to raise awareness about and inform people throughout the campus and community about Korea.

The musical group Coreyah, for example, the will appear in concert at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 25, in Hewitt ballroom as part of Artswego's Performing Artists Series. Using traditional Korean instruments, the ensemble presents a new breed of music that breaks the barrier between customary and contemporary popular Korean music by assimilating various world music heritages, such as Anglo-American rock, Balkan gypsy and a variety of musical genres from South America and Africa.

Tickets for Coreyah are $20 ($5 for students), and are available at all SUNY Oswego box offices, online at tickets.oswego.edu or by calling 315-312-3073.

The speakers this fall will include Walter Chon of Ithaca College's theatre arts department, on Oct. 24, and Suki Kim, a Korean American writer, on Nov.10. Others are in the works, according to IGE Fellow Evelyn Benavides, a sociology faculty member, and IGE Director Ulises Mejias of communications studies.

The Institute for Global Engagement is an active network of the many SUNY Oswego people, offices, programs and committees committed to expanding world awareness and global engagement. For more information, visit oswego.edu/ige.