Area(s) of Expertise
Contemporary Art and Visual Cultural Studies, Critical Theory, East Asian Culture and Arts, Modern Korean Society and Art, Art of Memory and Trauma, Art and Politics, Gender Studies, Transculturalism, Politics of Affect, embodimentOverview
Dr. Soyang Park specializes in contemporary art and visual culture theory, critical theories, and cultural history. Park has engaged in a progressive and interdisciplinary inquiry into art historical and visual studies research and its teaching for more than two decades. Working across the globe at various renowned academic institutions in East Asia, UK, and US before her arrival at OCAD U in 2007, Park’s research was supported by Goldsmiths College (University of London, UK), Oxford University (UK), and Carnegie Melon University (US). She is also an art journalist, curator, activist, and translator.
Her early research focused on the study of a South Korean avant-garde art movement from the 1980s and its mode of radical reframing of memory (both socio-political and cultural) for an affective social change. Park’s more recent research has focused on exploring the dynamic transformations of South Korean society, media, and culture after the 1990s democratization in relation to the issues of gender, memory, community, mediascape, and social mobilization, as well as the likes in relation to the other East Asian and Asia-Global communities.
Park's teaching in the subjects ranging from the history of modern art, critical (post-)modernisms, and the history and theory of art criticism to East Asian art, culture and society encompasses and intervenes into their traditional Eurocentric make-up - in order to decolonize and globalize their contents and methods. This intervention ultimately aims to facilitate critical self-reflective learning, research, and creation via multidirectional decolonization. For Park’s teaching philosophy and the official student feedbacks on all levels of Park’s courses, visit https://soyangparkcom.wordpress.com/.
Park is also the founder of Critiques/Fora (interdisciplinary critical fora for artists, designers, critics, and curators; formerly known as Critiques Across the Curriculum) and Asia-Global-Cultural-Studies-Forum (AGCSF), a forum of a lively discussion of Asia- and Asia Global-related art, design, culture, media, creative strategy, and research. https://asiaglobalculturalstudiesforum.wordpress.com
Education
Ph.D. History & Visual Cultural Studies, Goldsmiths College (University of London), Dec 2003
M.A. History of Art (Twentieth Century), Goldsmiths College (London, UK), Jan 1999
B.A. Science of Art, Hongik University (Seoul, S. Korea), Feb 1995
Professional Experience
Assistant Professor, OCAD University, Toronto, 2007-Present
Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for Arts in Scoiety and Humanities Center at Carnegie Mellon University, USA, 2006-2007
Postdoctoral Fellow, Wolfson College, University of Oxford, UK 2005-2006
Associate member of teaching faculty, Oriental Institute, University of Oxford, UK, 2005-2006
Lecturer 2000-03, Hongik University, Seoul, S. Korea, 2004
Visiting Tutor, Goldsmiths College, University of London, London, UK, 2000-2003
Art Journalist, Monthly Art Journal, Art World, S. Korea, 2000-2003
Representatitive of Pacific Asia Cultural Studies Forum, Goldsmiths College, London, UK, 2001-2
Assistant Curator: Munhaw Ilbo Gallery, Seoul, S. Korea, 1996-1997
Chief Curator of Street Art Festival, Mapo-gu Council and Hongik University, Seoul, S. Korea, 1993-1994
Awards \ Grants
SIG fund, Graduate and Research Office, Ontario Collage of Art and Design, 2009-2010
The Korean Culture & Arts Foundation, Culture and Arts Funding Competition, South Korea, 2004
PhD Bursaries,The Department of Historical and Cultural Studies, Goldsmiths College, University of London, UK, 2000-2002
British Council Scholarship Scheme, British Council, UK, 1998-1999
Selected Publications
Yilong Liu & Soyang Park. "Confronting Ambiguity: Reading the Intersection of Racial and Sexual Marginalization in Rex vs Singh and Seeking Single White Male." Journal of Ethnic and Cultural Studies 6, no. 1 (June 2019): 1-13.
Soyang Park. “Modernity, Plastic Spectacle, and an Imperfect Utopia: A Critical Reflection on Plastic Paradise (1997) by Choi Jeonghwa.” Cross-Currents: East Asian History and Culture Review 7, no. 2 (Nov 2018): 294-325.
*An online version of the same article under the same title (with different figures) is also available in Cross-Currents: East Asian History and Culture Review, 27 (June 2018): 51-78. e-Journal (http://cross-currents.berkeley.edu/e-journal/issue-27).
Soyang Park. “Speaking with the Colonial Ghosts and Pungsu Rumour in Contemporary South Korea (1990–2006): The Pungsu (FengShui) Invasion Story Surrounding the Demolition of the Former Japanese Colonial-General Building and Iron Spikes.” Journal for Cultural Research (Routledge), 29 Nov 2011.
Soyang Park. “The Return of the Real: On ‘Corporeal Resalism’ in the Works of Oh Yoon and Lim Oksang.” In Beyond the Political: Hyeonsil gwa Baleun (Reality and Utterance) 30 Years Now (Seoul: Hynsil Munhwa, Dec 2011), 91-109. (Korean)
Soyang Park. “Inoperative Community in Post-Authoritarian South Korea: Football Fandom, Political Mobilization and Civil Society.” Journal for Cultural Research (Routledge) 14, no. 2 (April 2010): 197-220.
Soyang Park. “Cosmopolitanism and Universalism.” in The Palgrave Dictionary of Transnational History, edited by Akira Iriye and Pierre Yves Saunier (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), 219-223.
Soyang Park. “Decolonization,” in The Palgrave Dictionary of Transnational History, 248-252.
Soyang Park. “Internationalisms,” in The Palgrave Dictionary of Transnational History, 586-590.
Soyang Park. “Silence, Subaltern Speech, and The Intellectual in South Korea: The politics of emergent speech in the case of former sexual slaves.” Cultural Values: Journal for Cultural Research 9, no. 2 (Apr 2005): 169-206.
Soyang Park. “Remembering and Forgetting: the politics and art of minjung movement in Modern Korea.” Journal of History of Modern Art no.18 (Dec 2005): 43-72.
Soyang Park. “Xen: Migration, labour and Identity’: Yongsoon Min with Allan DeSouza.” Third Text 19, no. 4 (July, 2005): 427-431.
Soyang Park. "Nazen Moksori 2 – Habitual Sadness: discussion with South Korean film director Young-joo Byun." a-r-c, Mar 2001 (http://a-r-c_Four/printexts/print-habitual.html).
PUBLICATIONS IN ART JOURNALS
Soyang Park. “William Blake Revived in Tate Britain.” Art World (Misulsaegye), no. 196 (Mar 2001): 36-39. (Korean)
Soyang Park. “Beauty and Horror in Contemporary Art: Apocalypse Exhibition in Royal Academy of Art.” Art World (Misulsaegye), no. 194 (Jan 2001): 34-37. (Korean)
Soyang Park. “Issac Julien’s Solo Exhibition: Post-Colonial and Homoerotic Desire in Vagabondia & Cinerama in South London Gallery.” Art World (Misulsaegye), no. 192 (Nov 2000): 48-51. (Korean)
Soyang Park. “I-Deal: Hejin Kum’s Body Art.” Art World (Misulsaegye), no. 186 (May 2000): 116-119. (Korean)
Soyang Park. “A Letter to Fukuoka Citizens: A Speculation on the Memory and History of East Asian Women: London Box Museum Project – Fukuoka Asian Art Festival.” Art World (Misulsaegye), no. 185 (Apr 2000): 138-143. (Korean)
Soyang Park. “’99 Turner Prize and Tracy Emin Phenomenon.” Art World (Misulsaegye), no. 182 (Jan 2000): 160-165. (Korean)
Soyang Park. “Artists in ‘99 Turner Prize in Tate Britain.” Art World (Misulsaegye), no. 181 (Dec 1999): 112-115. (Korean)
Soyang Park. “Art of Truth and Reconciliation: On South African Artist, William Kentridge Exhibition in Serpentine Gallery.” Art World (Misulsaegye), no. 176 (Jul 1999): 124-125. (Korean)
Soyang Park. “Fact? Fiction? Or the Game Toward A Truth?: Sophie Calle Exhibition in Camden Art Centre.” Art World (Misulsaegye), no. 174 (May 1999): 126-129. (Korean)
Soyang Park. “Beauty and Horror: Andreas Gursky’s Photographs in Serpentine Gallery.” Art World (Misulsaegye), no. 173 (Apr 1999): 114-117. (Korean)
Soyang Park. “An Art History Written Through Experiments and Challenge: ’96 Lyon Biennale.” Art World (Misulsaegye), no. 136 (Mar 1996): 102-105. (Korean)
TRANSLATIONS
Kim Chi-Ha. “The First Manifesto of the Reality Coterie” (first published in 1969). Translated by Soyang Park. In Access to Contemporary Korean Art 1980–2010 (Seoul: Forum A, 2018), 21-26.
Kim Yun-Su. “New Figurative Art That Is Getting Close to the Truth of Life – Notes on the Selection of 11 Young Figurative Artists (1981).” Translated by Soyang Park. In Access to Contemporary Korean Art 1980–2010, 29-33.
Park Chan-Kyung. “Notes on the ‘Conceptual Realism’ – An Editor’s Annotation.” Translated by Soyang Park. In Access to Contemporary Korean Art 1980–2010, 44-52.
BOOKS
The Visual Culture of Haunting: Forgetting and Remembering in the Politics and Art of Postcolonial South Korea (Forthcoming)
CONFERENCE PAPERS AND ACADEMIC TALKS PRESENTED AT:
Goldsmith College (University of London, UK)
University of Oxford (UK)
University of Cambridge (UK)
Senate House (London, UK)
Hongik University (Seoul)
The Korea Society (NYC, US)
Art Institute of Chicago (US)
Rhode Island School of Design (US)
UC Irvine (US)
CAA (College of Art Association, US)
AAH (Association of Art Historians, UK)
UAAC (Universities Art Association of Canada)
AAS (Association for Asian Studies)
Professional Affiliations / Boards / Juries
Member of Universties Art Association of Canada, 2010
Member of Association of Art Historans (AAH), UK, 2006
Representative of Pacific Asia Cultural Studies Forum, UK, 2001 – 2002
Committee member of Pacific Asia Cultural Studies Forum, UK, 2000