Discussing Lived Racism in Context: A Long-Term Study among Koreans in Argentina

By Violeta Martinez Courtis, 2023

Dr. Corina Courtis, University of Buenos Aires (UBA)

Monday, October 7, 2024
4:00 PM (Pacific Time)

Bunche Hall, Rm 10383

Within the frame of a broader study on discourse about ethnic-racial discrimination in Argentina, this presentation focuses on the ways in which Korean immigrants and their descendants living in Buenos Aires have conceptualized, verbalized and impugnated experiences of prejudice and everyday racism across three decades. Combining an anthropological outlook with linguistic tools, Dr. Courtis examines and compare two types of discourses collected between the mid-1990s and the beginning of the 2020s. On the one hand, she analyzes verbal accounts of everyday racism included in biographic narratives gathered among ethnic Koreans; on the other, Dr. Courtis explores discourses produced -- frequently by community leaders or referents -- for circulation in the public sphere. The study reveals progressive transformations in the way Koreans have discussed lived racism in Argentina, from a “restricted” form of talk to overt contestations of anti-Asian racism, and identifies relevant contextual factors impinging on the discursive turns described.  

Dr. Corina Courtis is a sociocultural and linguistic anthropologist. At the intersection of migration studies, political anthropology and socio/ethnolinguistics, her research interests center on the relations between migration and citizenship. She has worked on issues of ethnic discrimination and everyday racism, focusing on the Korean immigration in Buenos Aires. She is the author of Discriminación étnico-racial: discursos públicos y experiencias cotidianas. Un estudio centrado en la colectividad coreana de Buenos Aires (2012), and several publications on the subject. 

This is part of the "Koreans in the World" project hosted by UCLA's Center for Korean Studies. This event is supported by the Academy of Korean Studies (AKS Award Number: AKS-2023-SRI-2200001) as part of its Strategic Research Institute Program for Korean Studies. 

Sponsor(s): Center for Korean Studies, Anthropology