Assistant Professor of Humanities and Writing at Sichuan University-Pittsburgh Institute
About
Areum Jeong is an assistant professor of humanities and writing at Sichuan University-Pittsburgh Institute. She holds a PhD in theater and performance studies from the University of California, Los Angeles and MA in performance studies from New York University. Her current book project examines activist performances and protests in South Korea and diasporic communities, and explores how art and social media are used to document, record, or remember death, loss, and memory.
Current Work:
Through a close reading of performances that commemorate the Sewol Ferry tragedy, Jeong's book project explores how performance can serve as living memorials because they document the victims — or rather their absence — the search for their bodies and the people who remember them. The performances try to make sense of the Sewol Ferry tragedy and become a political commentary, critiquing the censorship and neo-authoritarian rule of the Park Geun-hye administration. Moreover, these performances are based on the aesthetics of and approaches to community art through collaboration and dialogical approach and practice, aiming to solve the structural problems of contemporary Korean society.
Research Area Keyword(s):
Activism, Korea, media, performance, theatre
