Welcome to Disaster Haggyo

The wide variety and impact of disasters globally demands new approaches to research, collaboration, and disaster justice. The Disaster Haggyo is a disaster studies school aimed at accelerating the implementation of cutting-edge disaster research for maximum benefit to communities. The Disaster Haggyo draws social scientists, engineers, artists, and scientists together for collaborative research. The Disaster Haggyo facilitates deep learning in the ways that disaster history shapes the present vulnerabilities and strengths of a community. Disaster-impacted communities need a greater voice in disaster research and policy formation if there is to be measurable progress against the slow disasters of industrial pollution, climate change, and the threat of new disease outbreaks.

The Disaster Haggyo facilitates three activities simultaneously: 1) new interdisciplinary disaster research in areas of greatest need; 2) a new pedagogical model for increasing skill among disaster researchers, skill necessary for technology and policy innovation; 3) development of community-based action for developing safer, disaster-resistant communities.

The Disaster Haggyo is hosted by the Graduate School of Science and Technology Policy at KAIST (Act 1&2) and the Osaka University Research Center on Ethical, Legal, and Social Issues (Act 3). 

Bridging multiple themes and sites

In the summer of 2023, the Disaster Haggyo takes as its focus the intertwined processes of disaster recovery, memory, and science in support of trauma reduction and healing. Meetings will take place in Daejeon and Ansan, South Korea, and also Namie, Okuma, Sendai, and Hiroshima, Japan. We invite your involvement!

Schedule

The Disaster Haggyo 2023 is divided into three phases (Act 1, 2, and 3) and brief schedules are as follows.

ACT 1

Act 1 is basically held at KAIST, Daejeon, partially in conjunction with the Conference of East Asian Environmental History.

Date

Contents

June 27

Sewol Memory Site Visit: Ansan

All day

June 28

Disaster Haggyo

- Morning: Welcome to Disaster Haggyo, introductory sessions

- Afternoon: East Asian Environmental History Plenary Sessions

June 29  

Disaster Haggyo

- Full day workshop on disaster, science, and memory—in conjunction with the East Asian Environmental History meeting.



Nuclear Memory in the Body and the Environment

Session Chair: Jaehwan Hyun, Pusan National University

Comment: Ryuma Shineha, Osaka University

The Global Hibakusha during the Cold War

Presenter: Robert Jacobs, Hiroshima Peace Institute)

Layered Hardships for Korean Atomic-Bomb Victims 

Presenter: Yuko Takahashi, Hiroshima Jogakuin University

Living with Slow Disaster: Memories of Haeneyo, Sea Weeds and Nuclear Plants in Gori, Pusan

Presenter: Yunjeong Joo, Pusan National University

Living in the Nuclear Village: An Exception Space Created by the Clash of Developmental Desires

Presenter: WooChang Kim, Seoul National University



Disaster Science, Investigation, and Memory

Session Chair: Joelle Champalet, KAIST

Comment: Sarah Senk, California State University Maritime Academy

Breaking the Long Silence: The Jeju 4.3 Exhumations

Presenter: Youngkwan Ban, Jeju 4.3 Peace Foundation

Fragments of a Disaster: The Sewol Ferry Special Investigative Commission

Presenter: Seulgi Lee, KAIST

The Korean Humidifier Disinfectant Disaster and the Science: Investigation, Responsibility, and Memory

Presenter: Jinyoung Park, Pusan National University



Disastrous Futures in Uncertain Environments

Session Chair: Hyunah Keum

Comment: Scott Gabriel Knowles

Indian Ocean Science: From a “Vast Unknown” to Slow Disaster

Presenter: Vivian Choi, St. Olaf College

The Forest-Thinning Policy Caused Wildfire Disasters?: Forestry in South Korea 1998-2022

Presenter: Hyeonbin Park, KAIST

Health-Related Harm and Vulnerability in Slow Disasters (Climate Crises): A Conceptual Exploration

Presenter: Choi Eun Kyung, Kyungpook National University, School of Medicine

June 30

Disaster Memorialization Workshop

Disaster Memorialization Workshop + Disaster Justice Activism

Jiseong Lee (4.16 Archives)

Kristin Urquiza (Marked by COVID)

Grenfell United Representatives

Afternoon: UNESCO and the 4.16 Memory Archives

Participant Dinner

July 1 

Open Day

Optional visit: Seoul Humidifier Disaster Memorial//Itaewon Camp

*Detailed schedule 

Act 2

Act 2 is basically held at KAIST, Daejeon as a summer semester course (course title: Disaster Science and Policy Seminar) from July 3 to 28. Lectures are given in person and online.

*Guest lectures online: Jacob Remes, Kim Fortun, Krista Rowe, Juhyun Cho, Ryuma Shineha, Bo Jacobs, Yuko Takahashi (dates to be determined)

Act 3

Act 3 takes place in Japan.

July 31

Travel to Sendai, Japan

Aug 1-4

Fukushima visit and local research on disaster memorials: Sendai, Ishinomaki, Namie, Okuma

Host: Ryuma Shineha, Osaka University

Aug 5

Travel day

Aug 6-7

Hiroshima visit and local research

Host: Bo Jacobs, Hiroshima Peace Institute

Who are we?

https://stp.kaist.ac.kr/research_groups/view/id/14

Our team shares various research interests under the big theme of disaster, which builds slowly, and often is relevant to structural violences and inequalities. Several subtopics include smart cities and urban infrastructure, power dynamics around nuclear power plant decomissioning, relationship with non-human beings in the Anthropocene, memorialization as a process of healing and recovery, material politics of wastes. We are open to multiple research methodologies including historical archival work, ethnographic work (field exploration and interview), art work. Our members love gardening, growing various plants on campus. We have warmhearted team spirit!

You can see our team in more detail at this link.