"I was just a child in 1987 when student activist Lee Han Yeol was killed. His death at the hands of the police galvanized the public and led to the announcement of a democratic election process. I didn’t understand the meaning of these events until I was much older. In interrogating this history as an adult and scholar, I was inspired that it was students who were instrumental in bringing about democratization. So, writing about this collective disobedience in Excavations was both an attempt to relearn this critical moment of history, to witness it, and retell it. This felt especially important because I felt that this period of dictatorship is not a chapter of Korean history that is well-known outside of Korea, but may offer important lessons elsewhere, such as the US, where there has been an erosion of civil and democratic rights and a turn toward authoritarianism" (Hannah Michell).
In the context of the nineteenth edition of aspeers, we chose to include a professorial voice that reflects on resistance through the specific lenses of literary and authorial production as well as experience, highlighting the journal’s commitment to scholarship that emerges from applied practices. In this section of the journal, rather than another conventional critical essay, this piece offers a dialogue, a form of active exchange with our professorial voice. Presented in a question-and-answer-based format, this collaboratively written contribution openly invites reflection on how both literary practices and academic discourse shine light on contemporary spaces of resistance.