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[CfP] The Refugee Question: South Korea and the Changing Politics of Refugeehood 

Korea Journal Special Issue 

Guest Editors: Nora Kim (University of Mary Washington) and Angela McClean (Yale University) 

During and after the Korean War, Korea experienced widespread displacement, leaving war refugees, divided families, and transnational adoptees in its wake. In the past decade, however, South Korea has emerged as a refugee-hosting country. Despite this transformation, systematic scholarly analysis of refugees in the Korean context is largely missing, and refugee studies as a field is underexplored within Korean Studies. This gap is striking, as South Korea presents an exceptionally interesting case that challenges dominant, Western theorization of refugees. 

The 1951 UN Refugee Convention defines a refugee as a person outside of one’s own country due to a well-founded fear of persecution (Article A, para 2). In other words, a refugee is someone whose sovereign state is either unwilling or unable to provide protection, and who seeks protection from another sovereign entity. But what happens when sovereignty itself is historically and politically unsettled? Or when the nation-state in question remains divided or incomplete? Who is recognized as a refugee, and who has the authority to make that determination?

South Korea is an excellent case for examining the link between the nation-state and the figure of the refugee in a post-colonial context, shedding new light on existing scholarship on refugees — much of which has been shaped by Western experiences of displacement during the two World Wars.

We invite scholarly works on how and by whom refugeehood is constructed, contested, and changed over time, regardless of period. We are particularly interested in works that delve into how the refugee question is tied to the construction of (South) Korea as a nation-state. Contributions that shed comparative light on the Korean case are also welcome. 

Submission:

Please email the title and abstract (no more than 250 words) to Nora Kim (hkim4@umw.edu) and Angela McClean (angela.mcclean@yale.edu) by June 10, 2026. Those selected for the special issue will be notified by the end of June.