한국 ‘여성학’의 위치성: 미완의 제도화와 기회구조의 변화

초록

Has Women’ Studies in Korea been successfully institutionalized as an interdisciplinary discipline over the past thirty years? How can we assess the 'discourse of crisis' of Women's Studies as confronting the decreased number of its graduate program? This paper explores the process of institutionalization and the current situation of Women's Studies in Korea in order to understand the positionality of Women's Studies(hereafter WS) under the shifting Korean social environment. More specifically, I examine first, the historical trajectory of WS; second, the current situation of undergradute/graduate programs and their curricular, as well as centers for WS inside/outside campus; and third, how are the impacts of neoliberal global capitalism which leads to academic capitalism on WS. I will argue that Korean WS has confronted, conflicted and negotiated with shifting external atmospheres including changing higher education policy interlocked with rapidly diffused academic capitalism. Under the circumstances, it seems that WS has pursued differential opportunities and simultaneously pioneered diverse arenas for Women's/Gender studies, while having a burden of incomplete task of academic institutionalization on its back. Therefore, 'now' is the important time to ask ourselves what could be a more active and alternative vision to reconfigure Korean WS.

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