The Ending the Korean War Teaching Collective

The Ending the Korean War (EKW) Teaching Collective is a group of activist scholars committed to feminist and intersectional praxis.1 As members of the militarized Korean diaspora, we build on the ethnic studies commitment to anti-imperialist people’s struggles for self-determination. Political education has long been part of diasporic organizing within the belly of the beast of U.S. empire, and our public syllabus aims to further that work. As a resource for students, activists, and educators, this syllabus brings into focus the demands, interventions, and visions of many generations of people who have called for the end of the Korean War and the decolonization of the Korean peninsula.

In 2018, University of California, Santa Cruz professor Christine Hong and longtime activist Hyun Lee worked together to draft a resolution calling for the end of the Korean War, setting into motion the formation of the EKW Teaching Collective. Building from these early efforts, EKW wrote the “Resolution Calling for a Decolonizing Peace and a Formal End to the Korean War” to mark the seventieth year since the start of the Korean War. In addition to calling for a formal end to the war, the resolution called for the end of U.S. militarization of the region and declared solidarity with peoples in Asia, the Pacific, and North America waging anti-imperialist struggles. The resolution passed by a unanimous vote by the Association for Asian American Studies in June 2020 and, in modified form, was unanimously endorsed by the American Studies Association in October 2020.

The EKW began work on the syllabus as a critical step toward addressing the goals and demands of the 2020 resolutions, including a commitment to political education. Core members Minju Bae, Crystal Mun-hye Baik, Patrick Chung, Christine Hong, Joo Ok Kim, Monica Kim, and Youjoung (Yuna) Kim have led the effort in bringing the syllabus to this issue of Critical Ethnic Studies.2