The Limits and Possibilities of the Natural in Korea
UCI Environmental Studies of Korea Conference
Date: Friday, June 5, 2026
Location: HIB 135, University of California, Irvine
Conference Theme
The conference explores the limits and possibilities of multiple conceptions of what constitutes "nature," "biology," "nativeness," or "the organic" in the Korean context. How have terms such as jayeon자연自然, saengmul생물生物, saengtae생태生態, tojong토종土種, yugi유기有機, among others, been invoked in Korea and to what ends? How are they braided into nationalist or Cold War claims over nature and landscape? Conversely, how have these terms been used to denote differences and demarcate the boundaries of “Korean nature”? How have ideas about organicism evolved in Korea over time? What are the boundaries of “the natural" in Korea, and who gets to decide them?
