World Forum on Unification Humanities 2025
“Intellectual Values and Coexistence for a Peaceful Korean Community”
Date: 21st – 22nd February 2025 (Friday – Saturday)
Location: The University of Queensland, Australia (Gordon Greenwood, Building 32)
Host:
- Korean Studies Centre, School of Languages and Cultures, The University of Queensland, Australia
- Korea Language Department, Ocean University of China
- Unification Humanities Research Group, Konkuk University, South Korea
- Korea Research Center, Ritsumeikan University, Japan
Purpose:
This year marks the 80th anniversary of Korea’s liberation. However, the shadow of the Cold War looms even darker over the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia. Furthermore, with Trump's election in the recent U.S. presidential election, the world is facing increasingly unpredictable situations. In Northeast Asia, tensions continue to escalate along adversarial lines, with the U.S.-Japan alliance strengthening against the North Korea-Russia alliance. This conflict is structured around China’s cross-strait relations and the division of the Korean Peninsula, forming a Cold War-style triangular confrontation between North Korea-China-Russia and South Korea-U.S.-Japan.
However, considering the historical fluctuations of conflict and reconciliation on the Korean Peninsula, dialogue on the differences in values, emotions, and cultures between the North and South must continue, and communication should not cease. Cease of communication would lead to a fatalistic pessimism that assumes the current situation will remain unchanged indefinitely. Thus, the 2025 World Forum on Unification Humanities, in collaboration with the Korean Studies Centre, School of Languages and Cultures at the University of Queensland, Australia, seeks to explore a fresh perspective under the theme "Intellectual Values and Coexistence for a Peaceful Korean Community."
This conference aims to broaden mutual understanding through comparative studies of North and South Korean textbooks, as well as to examine the struggles of intellectuals who sought to overcome the tragic realities of colonialism and division affecting Korea and the Korean diaspora. By doing so, we hope to find light amid today’s darkness. Furthermore, alongside textbook analysis, we aim to create a space for sharing intellectual thoughts from China, Japan, and other regions, fostering friendships and deepening mutual understanding.