Beyond the Han River miracle: Soccer, soap operas, stem cells, and sanitation

My dissertation, Beyond the Han River Miracle: South Korean Soccer, Soap Operas, Stem Cells, and Sanitation, explores four interrelated phenomena through which Koreans are making outward-looking attempts to project South Korea as a "global" nation, a crucial marker of contemporary social identity for many South Koreans. I study variously positioned actors---bureaucrats, scientists, fans, and culture workers---and their endeavors to turn Korea into a new "cultural" power in order to make it relevant in a multi-polar world. My project builds upon work in Korean Studies and the anthropology of globalization, but takes this literature in a new direction by focusing on state and civil society-led initiatives to create, disseminate, and implement new definitions of Korean culture and society.;Each chapter of my dissertation explores four self-consciously "global" projects in contemporary Korea. These are: (1) the "Better Korea Movement," an organization instituted in order to "improve" South Korea before its hosting of the 2002 FIFA World Cup; (2) the Korean Wave and the role of Arirang TV, a state-funded English-language global broadcasting station with the sole purpose of publicizing South Korea throughout the world; (3) a state-led biotechnology project in which the lead scientist was found to have fabricated his data; (4) and the World Toilet Association, an international NGO formed in Korea in 2007 to aid in the global efforts of improving sanitation through toilets.;These sites are linked to national phenomena which produced massive social transformation, popular and governmental support, as well as civic unrest in South Korean society. Each sparked debates over national identity, South Korea's place as an emerging nation in a globalizing world, and in particular, its status as a "modern" nation whose leaders and people have a real sense of impacting the whole of humanity. Incorporating soccer, soap operas, stem cells, and sanitation within a singular analytical framework produces a construction in which to examine the competing visions and processes for globalizing South Korea.