Speaker
YUK Joowon | Professor, Kyungpook National University; HYI Visiting Scholar, 2025-26
Chair/Discussant
Sun Joo Kim | Harvard-Yenching Professor of Korean History, Harvard University
Co-sponsored with the Korea Institute
Although Muslims constitute only a small fraction of South Korea’s population, Islamophobia has intensified markedly over the past decade. This rise parallels a shift in public discourse from a migration–development nexus toward increasingly exclusionary, “(Korean) nationals first” narratives that conflate migration with national security threats. South Korea’s belated and precarious multicultural discourse—premised on a hierarchical migration regime—has proved strikingly short-lived.
This talk examines the highly contested construction of the Daruleeman Mosque in Daegu, a case that drew international media and policy attention for the grotesque display of pigs’ body parts at the construction site. Drawing on four years of ethnographic action research (2021–present), I trace multi-scalar bordering practices enacted by anti-mosque resident protesters, local authorities, and far-right Protestant networks. Through this analysis, I illuminate the dynamics of social conflict surrounding migrant communities and the racial, cultural, and religious fault lines of South Korean society.
By situating the Daruleeman controversy within the global circulation of Islamophobic discourses, the active mobilization of far-right Protestant groups, and growing anti-immigrant nationalism, this talk contributes to broadening the study of Islamophobia and racism beyond Western contexts and highlights how these transnational ideologies are locally rearticulated in South Korea.
Upcoming Events
Visiting Scholar Talks
Intellectuals, Influencers, and the Reshaping of Chinese NationalismFriday, October 31, 2025
Visiting Scholar Talks
Aphasia in Post-socialist Memoryscape: Russian Speech Communities at the Limit of KoreaMonday, November 3, 2025
Visiting Scholar Talks
Migration Pathway, Precariousness and Migration Control: the Case of Irregular Migrants From the Philippines and Myanmar to ChinaThursday, November 13, 2025