The Center for East Asian Peace and Cooperation Studies is pleased to announce a joint lecture with the Korea Research Center featuring Dafna Zur of Stanford University. We warmly invite all interested participants to attend.

Title

How to Communicate with Aliens: A Comparative Study of North and South Korean Science Fiction

Date and Time

Monday, May 25, 2026 | 5:00 PM–6:30 PM

Venue

Suekawa Memorial Hall, Lecture Room
Ritsumeikan University Kinugasa Campus

Registration

Please register here.

Overview

Science fiction novels produced in North and South Korea during the 1950s and 1960s were more than works of imaginative literature; they were important cultural texts that reflected competing visions of the future shaped by each state in the aftermath of the Korean War.

This lecture compares science fiction from both Koreas to examine how science and technology, space exploration, and representations of the human subject were portrayed, and how these depictions were connected to each country’s national ideology and vision of modernization.

Through an exploration of North and South Korean science fiction, the lecture illuminates the intersection of political imagination and cultural representation during the Cold War era.

Speaker

Dafna Zur

Professor Zur specializes in Korean literature, film, and popular culture. She is the author of Figuring Korean Futures: Children's Literature in Modern Korea (Stanford University Press, 2017), which examines children’s literature and the construction of future imaginaries in colonial and postcolonial Korea.

She is currently working on a project on moral education through youth science and literary magazines in postwar North and South Korea. She has published extensively on North Korean science fiction, representations of the Korean War, and Korean popular culture, and has also translated numerous works of Korean literature into English.

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The Center for East Asia Peace and Cooperation Studies at Ritsumeikan University is pleased to invite you to a roundtable discussion titled “Post-Election Japan: Domestic Politics, Northeast Asia, and Korea–Japan Cooperation.”

This event will examine the implications of Japan’s recent election for domestic politics and regional strategy, with particular attention to Northeast Asia and the future direction of Korea–Japan cooperation.

We are honored to welcome Dr. Jiyoon Kim (Political Analyst, YouTube Content Creator, and Ph.D. in Political Science, MIT) as our special speaker.

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Event Details

Date: Friday, May 13

Time: 15:00–17:00

Venue: Room 301, Suzaku Campus, Ritsumeikan University

Organizer: Center for East Asia Peace and Cooperation Studies

Supported by: Korea Foundation



Discussion Topics

Japanese Election Results and Domestic Political Dynamics

Geopolitical Outlook in Northeast Asia – Japan’s Perspective

Future Direction of Korea–Japan Relations and Cooperation

If you are interested in attending, please register using the link below:

Registration:
Post-Election Japan: Domestic Politics, Northeast Asia, and Korea–Japan Cooperation – フォームに記入する
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