Resident Fellows Speaker Series
The Hall Center's Resident Fellows give lunchtime talks about their works-in-progress. These events are public and open to all, with a buffet lunch available for the first 45 attendees.
The Haunting of the Yanggongju: Guilt, Shame, and Retribution of South Korea’s State-Sanctioned Military Sex Workers
Whitney Yi Knapp (Sias Graduate Fellow, English)
TUE SEP 22, 12:00 - 1:30 PM
Hall Center Conference Hall
Korean American literature often explores the subjugation of comfort women under Japanese occupation from 1910 to 1945, but rarely acknowledges South Korea's own state-sanctioned military sex industry, developed to appease U.S. military officers stationed in the country after World War II. Knapp's project, an 80,000-word novel titled To Understand Everything, confronts this industry, which subjected over one million women to sex work over several decades. Drawing on extensive research, the project interrogates the relationship between the U.S. and South Korean governments, complicating the narrative of America's successful Cold War-era intervention. This talk examines how America's imperial practices forced a desperate nation to compromise the safety of its people, with lasting effects on Korean culture. Knapp juxtaposes this history with South Korea's rapid emergence as a global economic and cultural power, evidenced by the international success of films like Parasite and the global phenomena of K-pop groups such as BTS.
The Ukrainian Quest for Dignity: Postcolonial Theatrical Rewriting of the Literary Classics on the Eve of the Euromaidan
Oleksandra Wallo (Associate Professor, Slavic Languages & Literatures)
MON OCT 12, 12:00 - 1:30 PM
Hall Center Conference Hall
This talk explores a recent trend in contemporary Ukrainian theater: injecting new life into the Ukrainian literary canon through a postcolonial rewriting of works by canonical authors. Wallo examines the plays of Natalka Vorozhbyt, the premier contemporary Ukrainian dramatist, screenwriter, and film director who helped set this trend. Focusing on works from the early 2010s, the talk shows how each play embarks on a quest for dignity for Ukrainians, anticipating the Euromaidan protests of 2013–2014, later known in Ukraine as the Revolution of Dignity.
The Mighty McKeithens, a Presentation of a Play-in-Progress
Darren Canady (Professor, English)
WED OCT 28, 12:00 - 1:30 PM
Hall Center Conference Hall
In The Mighty McKeithens, Darren Michael Canady traces the unraveling of a gospel music dynasty. Marquez McKeithen is the dynamo musical scion of the Miraculous McKeithens, a “gospel-sangin’” family with hits that go back generations, but he knows the sounds that brought them fame won’t sustain them into the next generation. His twin, Martika, a gifted songwriter, senses another kind of change coming—born with a caul, family lore holds she has the gift of second sight. With two actors portraying all the characters, Canady lets the ghosts and echoes of the McKeithen clan’s unacknowledged queerness bubble up in the voices and bodies of Marquez and Martika, drawing the twins toward using their faith as a truth-telling balm rather than a cudgel and unlocking a future free of shame.
Maidenhood, Motherhood, and the Reproductive Body in the Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm
Andrea Meyertholen (Mid-Career Fellow, Associate Professor, Slavic Languages & Literatures)
MON NOV 16, 12:00 - 1:30 PM
Hall Center Conference Hall
Andrea Meyertholen’s current book project connects the classic tales of the Brothers Grimm with contemporary discourses of reproductive rights and political personhood. Why, despite over a century of women's rights movements and progress, do certain patriarchally defined conceptions, preconceptions, and misconceptions of the female body not only remain engrained in our society, but seem to be regaining cultural cachet? This research examines the powerful and persistent role of Grimm fairy tales—along with their enduring legacy in everyday popular culture—in shaping and spreading patriarchal models of female sexuality, virginity, and motherhood through text and subtext. The project examines literary, artistic, cinematic, theoretical, and other engagements with the female reproductive body to challenge and change what is unquestioningly accepted and reproduced with respect to the value, identity, and autonomy of women.