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Monash Beyond Borders Korean Studies Seminar Series 2026

Seminar

'Feeding the People: Socialist Dining, Technoscience, and Gendered Labor in Postwar North Korea'

Dr Sunho Ko (Penn State University)

  via ZOOM

Thursday, 17 September 2026, 10:00 AM AEST (Melbourne) / Wednesday, 16 September 2026, 8:00 PM EDT (Pennsylvania)

Bio: 

Sunho Ko is a cultural historian of modern Korean history with expertise in food and agriculture. He received a PhD degree from the University of Toronto with a dissertation on the history of food in wartime colonial Korea. He is currently expanding his research period from colonial Korea into North Korea to explore new topics of socialism, the Cold War, animal studies and environmental history.

Abstract: 

In the aftermath of the Korean War, North Korea embraced the slogan, “Let’s turn our restaurants into collective kitchens of the people (inmin ŭi kongdong chubang)!” to address the challenges of feeding a war-torn population. This initiative expanded state-owned and cooperative dining facilities with its emphasis on the scientific management of the facilities to provide nutritious, affordable, and appealing meals. This presentation examines these facilities as sites where scientific visions for food management were materially enacted, with revealing tensions, negotiations, and conflicts that reflected broader political dynamics. Special attention is given to women, who played a central role in realizing these scientific ideals through labor constrained by limited resources and conservative gender expectations. How did women workers navigate these intersecting worlds of gender, scientific discourse, and local realities? By tracing themes of socialist dining, scientific management, and women’s labor, the presentation highlights how North Korean socialism was both enacted and contested in everyday experiences.

Please contact Monash University Korean Studies Research Hub Coordinator Ms Sandy Nguyen for further details.Sandy.Nguyen1@monash.edu