Busan National University Hosts Gender Equality Network Symposium... Discussing Women's Movement and Gender Equality Issues

On the 21st, Hosted by Busan National University Female Professors Association, Women's Research Institute, Women's Studies Cooperative Program, and Human Rights Center

Exploring New Possibilities on Topics from Commercialization of Sex Education to THAAD Struggle, Gender Equality, and Solidarity

The ‘2024 Gender Equality Network Symposium’ organized by the Pusan National University Gender Equality Network will be held on the 21st at 3 PM in Room 2213 of the Second Law Building at Pusan National University, under the theme ‘Meeting of Life’s Possibilities.’

The Pusan National University Gender Equality Network is an internal organization composed of the Pusan National University Women Professors’ Association, Women’s Research Institute, Women’s Studies Cooperative Program, and Human Rights Center, working together to promote gender equality both inside and outside the university.

Since the first symposium in 2016, it has steadily worked to expand public and practical discussions on gender equality in universities and society, aiming to establish a platform for regional discourse.

Marking its 9th year, this year’s symposium at Pusan National University under the theme ‘Meeting of Life’s Possibilities’ provides an opportunity for diverse members within and outside the university community to meet and share stories about their activity spaces, exploring possibilities to transform this world into a freer, more just, more empathetic, and more courageous place.

The symposium consists of a keynote speech, panel discussions, and sharing sessions involving all participants. It is expected to be a venue where people living diverse lives discuss solidarity and interconnected sensibilities, challenge existing orders, and seek ways to move together toward a new world.

The keynote speech will be delivered by Professor Oh Jeong-jin, Chair of the Pusan National University Women Professors’ Association and Head of the Women’s Studies Cooperative Program, under the title ‘A Feminist Reading of Gilbert Simondon’s Theory: Excess and Overflowing Sexuality of Life.’ Professor Oh will explore life’s capacity to continually change differently within relationships, using the theory of Gilbert Simondon, which has recently gained attention in feminism.

The discussion panel includes frontline feminist researchers and activists. Participants include Ryu Su-hyun, a research student who completed the master’s program in Women’s Studies Cooperative Program at Pusan National University and works as a specialist instructor in violence prevention and sex education; activist Jeon Hyun-nam from the Pusan Women’s Violence Prevention Comprehensive Support Center (Ijen Center); activist Nam Young-ran from ‘Labor Liberation Ma-joong,’ who meets the future of all first; and Kang Hyun-wook, a representative of the THAAD Withdrawal Soseong-ri General Situation Room and a Won-Buddhist citizen society network minister, who protects the THAAD countermeasure site in Soseong-ri alongside grandmothers and local residents.

The first panelist, research student Ryu Su-hyun, will share experiences from activities in the sex education field, which is focused on violence prevention education amid trends of commodification in the market, and discuss stories about the changing body and daily life through these efforts.

Following this, activist Jeon Hyun-nam will share her personal experience of achieving life changes free from social expectations through feminism and seek ways to continue various possibilities of life.

Activist Nam Young-ran will discuss the importance of solidarity and empathy to overcome the isolated and impoverished realities under the capitalist system, sharing hope and bright laughter as she dreams of a different world together with countless lives connected through labor. The fourth panelist, representative Kang Hyun-wook, plans to introduce the process by which women in Soseong-ri, central to the resistance movement at the forefront of the THAAD struggle, reach de-normativization and resocialization as social agents through their stories of protecting the village.

For symposium participation and event inquiries, please contact the Pusan National University Women’s Research Institute.

Poster for the Busan National University Gender Equality Network Symposium.