Marking thirty years since the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, often remembered in South Korea as the “IMF crisis,” this panel reflects on contested forms of Korean and Korean/American belonging in its aftermath. The IMF crisis was not only a national economic crisis that profoundly reshaped South Korea’s economy and social formations; it also precipitated movements of Korean people beyond their homes, producing family separation and forced movement. Nearly thirty years later, Korean diasporic cultural forms increasingly reckon with the crisis and its repercussions, with Min Jin Lee’s forthcoming novel American Hagwon (2026) also taking up this historical context.

This panel seeks to generate conversation around literary, sonic, and multisensory expressions of Korean belonging that emerged from or retrospectively return to the IMF crisis and its ongoing repercussions nearly thirty years later. We are especially eager to consider how “noise” takes form across different genres and media of Korean/ American culture. Building on sound studies scholar David Novak’s definition of noise as a “moving subject of circulation, of sound and listening, that emerges in the process of navigating the world and its differences,” we ask how noise might allow us to hear the crisis differently. What forms of hope emerge from attending to sensory experiences of noise prompted by--and used to process--the financial crisis? How has noise provided a haven for those displaced, lost, and seeking to reconnect?

Papers may explore topics such as financial crisis, forced displacement, diasporic memory, sensorial recursions, and more. With these provocations in mind, this panel invites papers from scholars and practitioners who engage with art, anthropology, literature, visual media, performance studies, film and media studies, and related disciplines.

Please submit 250 word abstracts and a brief bio to Bonnie Chung (bonnie.chung@marist.edu) and Jace Jung (jacejung@umich.edu) by October 5,2026.