This event will be a book talk. The lecture examines the formation of a gendered socialist lifestyle in North Korea by focusing on the localized processes of socioeconomic and cultural change as part of postwar reconstruction. It argues that cultural definitions of “New Living” replaced radical definitions of gender and class revolution with the politics of individual self-reform and self-improvement. One effect was the depoliticization of the country’s political culture in the very years that Kim Il Sung rose to power.

This event is free and open to the public. Please RSVP here.

About the speaker:

 Andre Schmid is the author of Korea Between Empires, 1895-1919 and many academic articles in English and Korean. He has taught Korean and East Asian history for more than 20 years at the University of Toronto.