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Call for Abstracts: Graduate Student Workshop on Korean Political Economy 

Pre-Conference Workshop | August 20, 2026 | Seoul National University

The Center for Korean Political Economy Studies @ SNU, Seoul, Korea

The Center for Korean Political Economy Studies at Seoul National University (SNU), in collaboration with the Contemporary Korean Studies Initiative, is pleased to announce the inaugural Graduate Student Workshop on Korean Political Economy, to be held on August 20, 2026, at SNU.

This workshop serves as a pre-conference event preceding SNU's 3rd International Conference for Contemporary Korean Studies (August 21–22, 2026) and is designed specifically for early career scholars, including doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers across the social sciences.

We invite abstract submissions on any topic within the broad field of Korean political economy, including but not limited to:

• State transformation, industrial policy, and technology strategy — encompassing developmental state models, chaebol reform, and technological changes and industrial restructuring (including AI at the industry and policy level)
• Democracy and political institutions — including democratic governance, political polarization, state capacity, and the relationship between political institutions and economic outcomes
• Financialization, economic governance, and global value chains — including financialization, household debt, climate change, and Korea's shifting position in global value chains
• Labor, work, and inequality — including labor market restructuring, nonstandard and platform labor, AI's impact on workers and the workplace, labor politics and labor movement, and income inequality
• Welfare, social policy, gender, and care work — including welfare state development, social policy reform, family structure, gender, care work, and social reproduction
• Comparative political economy of East Asia — situating Korean political economy in comparative perspective alongside Japan, Taiwan, and the broader region

Participants will receive constructive feedback on their work — whether directed toward publication or further development for their thesis — from peer scholars and distinguished faculty mentors drawn from relevant academic disciplines. The workshop also aims to serve as an ongoing venue for connecting emerging researchers across institutions and disciplines, with the goal of fostering new collaborative networks within the political economy field.

Participants will additionally have the opportunity to engage with attendees of a parallel pre-conference workshop on Korean Wave (Hallyu) Studies, and to attend SNU's 3rd International Conference for Contemporary Korean Studies on August 21–22, where leading scholars will address pressing questions and cutting-edge research on contemporary Korean society.

Eligibility and Support

The workshop is open to early career scholars in the social sciences, including doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers. In exceptional cases, outstanding master's students at a late stage of their studies may also be considered.

The workshop welcomes applicants from outside South Korea. We aim to offer accepted participants a transport grant of approximately KRW 400,000 (within Asia) or KRW 1,000,000 (outside Asia). Please note that, due to budgetary constraints, we are unable to provide accommodation for participants traveling from outside South Korea. Participants are encouraged to seek additional financial support from their home institutions.

 

Submission Guidelines and Schedule

To apply, please send an email to noran09@snu.ac.kr including the following:

• contact information and institutional affiliation, an abstract (500 words max. in English, 1000 characters max. in Korean), a short biography (150 words max. in English, 300 characters max. in Korean), and a full CV.

The deadline for applications is May 18th, 2026. All applicants will be notified of the outcome by June 1st, 2026.

If accepted, full papers must be submitted in English (6,000 words max.) by August 10th, 2026

This workshop is supported by the Center for Korean Political Economy Studies at SNU, in collaboration with the SNU Contemporary Korean Studies Initiative. For inquiries, please contact noran09@snu.ac.kr