It was AoIR annual gatherings that introduced me to the fun and joys of conference-going when I was doing my PhD. Since then I have had a chance to attend many other such events, but I find AoIR ones to be particularly fun as they have just a right dose of geekiness – or “intellectual badassness” if you prefer.
(Henry Jenkins delivering a keynote speech on the moral economy of Web 2.0 on 19 Oct 2007; my favourite photo of all time, having captured the very character of the event, or even the field.)
So, I am pleased that I will be attending this year’s AoIR conference, a.k.a. IR15, after having had to miss the last couple of them. It will be held in Daegu, South Korea, in October and I will be serving on the Local Committee. More and more information is being added to the official website as well as the Facebook page as we speak, but I thought I should be of more help myself – in my own little way. 🙂 Hence, I will share some casual background readings and handy tips here for colleagues who will be visiting Korea for the first time. I will add on as I find more!
- First of all, yes, you’ve heard correctly about our Internet speeds (original tweet here) – and access is apparently no longer a hassle for non-Koreans either.
- Advice for a trip to Korea (based on more than a dozen years of experience traveling in Korea) by CedarBough, June 2014.
- TK’s Korea travel itinerary, 16 May 2016 (via @AskAKorea).
- On a more general note, 40 genius travel tips that will change your life forever by Yosef Lerner, July 2014.
- In preparation for very likely conversation openers (image from here)
- PSY’s “Gangnam Style” and “Gangnam Oppa” in “Architecture 101” (1) by Jea Kim, August 2012.
- Korea’s problem is modernity by AAK, 24 September 2014.
- Introduction to modern Korean drama by Uwe E. Reinhardt, n.d. [Apparently now there is even a new nail polish collection called Anatomy of a #Kdrama in the US, which includes numbers such as “Instant Amnesia”, “Burn the Evidence”, and “Oh Slap!“…]
- 7 common myths I’ve heard about Korean fashion & beauty by Maxine Builder, January 2016.
- Korean skin care secrets by Anton Hur, 17 January 2018. “But the real secret to Korean skin care is our culture of relentless casual judgment of each other’s appearances. If you don’t have that, you’ll never have what we have.“
- Have you ever wondered why East Asians spontaneously make V-signs in photos? by Stephanie Burnett, TIME, 4 August 2014.
- Tank traps meet tourist traps at Korea’s demilitarized zone by James Pearson and Paul Ingrassia, October 2013.
- So what’s the difference between K-pop and Western pop anyway? by Kpopalypse, Asian Junkie, 9 September 2014.
- A Korean food geek’s guide to pro ordering by Matt Rodbard, 5 January 2016.
- Korean street food: The complete guide by Loose Translations.
- Street food in Korea and stuff on sticks! by Matt Armendariz, 23 August 2011.
- South Korea’s online trend: Paying to watch a pretty girl eat by Frances Cha, CNN, 3 February 2014.
- Honbap: Eating alone is a new norm [as opposed to the traditional imperative] by Steven Borowiec, Korean Exposé, 29 May 2017
- South Korean man studying alone creates sensation on YouTube (The Straits Times, 17 June 2018)
- Even infants sleep less in Korea, according to a study by Ahn et al., 2016.
Y for Yenndetta 