In 2021 South Korea and the UK are each reckoning with the effects of sexual and gender inequality and prejudice. This network aims to establish a cross-cultural dialogue on how language, literature, and the arts intervene on issues of gender inequality in society. It will bring together scholars from the UK and South Korea, across literary studies and the social sciences, to explore the international circulation of texts, and the politics of reading and writing in the era of #metoo. The project will centre on two symposia, two workshops, and two visiting lectures, in order to investigate cultural exchange in discourses of gender inequality between the UK and South Korea. The field trips will include student-facing research-led workshops to explore the language and symbolism of gender inequalities in the wake of #metoo. Beyond the central structures of the network, we will work together to scope a range of opportunities for future collaboration and closer ties between the host institutions. The problem of gender inequality in South Korea is long-standing and it has come to a climax in the past five years. Following the femicide 'Gangnam Station murder case' in 2016, the global #metoo movement gained traction in Seoul with activists protesting against the wider issue of how Confucian, patriarchal structures bear on women. Despite the fact that South Korea has the most highly educated female population in the OECD, 'the country's gender pay gap of 37% is OECD's largest, far more than twice the average in member states (14%). Average female earnings are 63% of male ones' (Foster-Carter, 2019). In the Global Gender Gap Index, South Korea is ranked 102nd (World Economic Forum, 2021). Yet feminist movements in South Korea have experienced a widespread backlash. On paper, the UK's statistics on gender inequality present a more positive picture, with the country ranked 23rd in the 2021 Global Gender Gap Index. However, such statistics mask a culture in which the public discourse on equal opportunities embedded in institutions obfuscate the structural inequalities and prejudices, highlighted and heightened by the Covid pandemic. The Incel terrorist shooting in Plymouth in August 2021, Sarah Everard's murder case have catalysed national protests. However, the UK is yet to directly address the bases of gender-based violence in dehumanizing and sexualized language, as part of a national conversation. The proposed project puts language, literature and the arts at the centre of its enquiry into gender inequality and violence, focusing on the vibrant cross-cultural exchanges between the two countries in this area. It puts emphasis on understanding how literary texts and reappropriated words and phrases have exerted influence across these cultures to both readdress inequalities and - contrariwise - to perpetrate them. It investigates how the written word has encapsulated and been weaponized against inequality across South Korean and UK cultures. Mindful that Gender Equality is one of the UN Sustainable Development Goals it asks more broadly too how cross-cultural dialogues in the arts have provided inspiration and community in the face of sexual and gender inequality, looking at the ways in which language and literature can be weaponized, and in what forums, to challenge sexual and gender inequality in South Korea and the UK. The symposia and workshops will take place in English, with all core participants fluent in English, and its main stated focus is the English-language circulation of terms and ideas (English in South Korea; Korean translated into English). This said, we welcome and will promote the discussion of translation practices with support from named participants. The written and podcast outputs will be translated into Korean and translation will be available for the Seoul-based events.

One of the critical questions that the COVID-19 pandemic has posed concerns the relationship of science, technology and society in times of disasters, and particularly how such a relationship should be addressed to young people across different stages of education. In the past two decades, several major disasters in South Korea have provoked science and technology educators' awareness of the need for disaster education. Likewise, the UK has been under the threat of natural and technological disasters arising from climate change as well as increasing complexities of technological systems. Although an informed understanding of disasters would be essential to promote disaster resilience and social justice through education, systematic efforts to integrate science and humanities in the context of disaster education have been scarce. This proposal aims to set up a sustainable network between leading disaster education research groups in the UK and South Korea. This 18-month project involving 11 researchers from education, socioecology of disasters, history and social studies of science will provide a unique opportunity for interdisciplinary and intercultural disaster education research. The UK team based at the University of Southampton (http://www.mshe.org.uk/, https://www.southampton.ac.uk/lifelab/) will be led by Park (PI), an expert in disaster education, and will also include experts in science education and health education across primary and secondary education levels. The partners at the Research Center for Hazard Literacy Education at Ewha Womans University are experts in socioscientific issues (SSI) education (http://enactproject.com/). Further, our partners at the Centre for Anthropocene Research, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) (https://anthropocenestudies.com/) have expertise in disaster research through historical and sociological lenses and have engaged in various disaster education activities. Collaboration between the three groups will offer a timely opportunity for knowledge exchange and dissemination in an interdisciplinary and intercultural manner. We build on our previous work on disaster education (Lee & Jeon, 2015; Park, 2020), disaster studies (Kang, 2016; Knowles, 2012; Park, 2019) and SSI education (Christodoulou et al., 2021; Lee et al., 2012; Lee & Lee, 2021; Ratcliffe & Grace, 2003) to develop a new conceptualisation of disaster education that integrates the scientific, technological and social aspects of disasters that can guide future research and practice. Using the networking grant with the support of existing institutional funding sources, we will organise conferences and seminars to bring together knowledge and experiences of disaster education in the UK and South Korean contexts. Members will work together to identify new avenues for cross-disciplinary collaboration in disaster education research through two intensive disaster education conferences and develop a research proposal to continue with the international collaboration. Through various knowledge exchange activities including conferences, seminars, early career researcher exchanges and mentoring, the network will explore directions for enhancing disaster preparedness and resilience in young people through intercultural research and education. There will be events to interact with teachers, which will help disseminate the project activities and receive user feedback. The project activities will be shared via a project website that is accessible for both researchers and practitioners. Project outputs will include opinion pieces, a disaster education resource book, an edited book and three journal articles, each targeted at different groups of users. These outputs will have an appeal for academics, university educators, teachers of different subjects (science, geography, social studies, history, etc.) and policymakers in the UK, South Korea and other countries.

This project examines the use of artefacts to strengthen interregional relations and enhance awareness of different cultures. Focusing on Korean objects in UK museum collections, it questions how their collecting and display manifest the relationship between the UK and South Korea in past and present times. The project is underpinned by the belief that art can raise awareness of a nation, strengthen intercultural connections, and promote cross-regional interests. Despite this, the role of museum artefacts in diplomatic and political contexts remains under-researched and the project therefore fills an important gap. The project draws on international studies on soft power and nation branding. Soft power may be defined as the ability to achieve objectives through attraction and persuasion, while nation branding refers to the image and reputation of a state. Increasingly, governments have realised that a nation's ability to influence decision making processes and behaviours in the international arena heavily depends on these two factors. Art plays a key role in this as many soft power schemes center on cultural and creative outputs. This is also the case in the UK and South Korea where art objects and their public display have been central to UK-South Korea soft power agendas. This is reflected in the fact that London is the only European capital with two galleries of Korean art, housed in major public institutions, namely the British Museum and the V&A Museum. Both were funded by Korean sponsors with the aim to improve Korea's nation brand. The significance of the project lies in its facilitation of cross-institutional dialogues between UK and Korean stakeholders from academic and cultural institutions who work directly with Korean cultural heritage. The nature of the project necessitates an interdisciplinary approach, and it brings together expertise in the fields of art history, museum management, curating and international studies. This enables us to approach the theme of the project from different methodological, theoretical, and curatorial perspectives. It creates an interpretative platform for asking critical questions, such as: How is the national image of Korea narrated visually through representations of Korean artefacts at the British Museum and the National Museum of Korea? Which concerns underpin exhibition displays of Korean artefacts in the UK and Korea? Which issues drive the display of Korean objects at university museums, such as Ewha Womans University Museum and the Fitzwilliam Museum at the University of Cambridge? How can UK museums learn from South Korean curatorial practices and vice versa? The project centers on a range of activities held in the UK and South Korea, aimed at establishing interdisciplinary dialogues, and cross-regional networks. Spanning conferences, fieldtrips, site visits, roundtable discussions, published outcomes and an online platform, the project will produce a range of short, mid, and long-term outputs aimed at academic beneficiaries and the wider public. The project will strengthen relations between UK and South Korean museums and enhance mutual understanding of key issues and challenges. It will positively influence the next generation of academic and museum professionals, further their knowledge and expand their networks. The project will enable us to develop a larger collaborative scheme that will contribute to broader discussions of art diplomacy and nation branding in the UK and South Korea, incorporating a wider set of case studies.