Call for Papers

We invite graduate students in Korean Studies across all disciplines to participate in the 11th International Conference of NextGen Korean Studies Scholars (NEKST) at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. The NEKST conference provides an opportunity for graduate students to share their research, receive feedback from faculty members and other graduate students, and contribute towards the building of an interdisciplinary community of future scholars in Korean Studies.

NEKST 2024 is scheduled to be an in-person event. The two-day conference will feature panel presentations, workshop sessions for dissertation chapters, and roundtables devoted to critical issues in Korean Studies. Partial travel grants and lodging stipend are available for participating graduate students. Meals will be provided during the conference.

Submission Guidelines

Current graduate students as well as those holding a terminal master’s degree are eligible to apply. We welcome submissions on research topics related to Korea from all disciplines.

To apply, please submit an abstract (250-word limit) via the link below. Abstracts should clearly state the research questions, main argument, methodology, results, and conclusion. The deadline for submission is January 21, 2024. The results will be announced by February 23, 2024.

Applicants can choose to participate in one of two formats:

The panel presentation format is open to all graduate students. Panelists will give a 15-minute presentation, receive comments from an assigned faculty discussant, and participate in a Q&A session around the topic of the panel. If accepted, completed papers will be due by April 26, 2024. Papers should closely reflect points that would be made in the presentation.

The chapter workshop format is open to PhD candidates writing their dissertation. When applying for this format, please submit an abstract for the chapter (not for the entire dissertation project), and add a note that explains how the chapter fits within your dissertation project. Each 45-minute workshop will be dedicated to the discussion of a single manuscript, and an assigned faculty discussant will provide feedback on the manuscript. Manuscripts will be pre-circulated to all faculty and graduate participants of the conference, who will also be invited to provide comments. If accepted, completed manuscripts will be due by April 12, 2024. Dissertation chapter manuscripts should be no more than 10,000 words.

For further information, please contact NEKST2024@umich.edu.

To apply, please follow the abstract submission link below.

About the Conference

The 11th NEKST conference is sponsored by the Nam Center for Korean Studies at the University of Michigan with support from the Academy of Korean Studies. The conference organizing committee is composed of graduate students at the University of Michigan.

NEKST Organizing Committee

Graduate Students:

Yeon-ju Bae (Chair; Anthropology)

Bo-Kyung Byun (Higher Education)

Kelsi Caywood (Sociology)

Hojung Joo (Political Science)

June Kim (Law)

James Kiselik (English)

Jane Lee (Asian Languages and Cultures)

I-Lun Shih (Sociology)

Gerald Sutton (Asian Languages and Cultures)

Faculty Advisor:

Youngju Ryu (Nam Center, Asian Languages and Cultures)

Postdoc Advisor:

Thomas Ryan (Nam Center)

Coordinator:

Eva Fall (Nam Center)

For further information about the conference, please visit our website below.