In celebration of World Day for Cultural Diversity on May 21st, the Diversity Council (Chair: Eun-Gi Min) held the first ‘Seoul National University Cultural Diversity Week,’ co-hosted by the Institute for Culture and Arts, the University Library, and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism’s Arts Council Korea. The theme for the week was “Diverse World, Diverse Us.” The week was also sponsored by Yuhan-Kimberly, Kakao, POSCO E&C, GM Korea, and two SNU institutions, the College of Humanities and the Computer Research Institute of the College of Engineering.
A variety of events were held on campus over the five days from Monday, May 20th to Friday, May 24th. The first day saw the beginning of the ‘Diversity Council Exhibition of Recommended Books & Films’ held jointly each year with the University Library. In April, the council had run the ‘Diversity Book & Film Recommendation Contest’ among all members of the SNU community, receiving 148 entries from which it chose 30 books and 10 films that will be on display for a month in the book café on the fourth floor of the library. On Tuesday the 21st, there was a forum in which officials from the diversity organizations within each of the four sponsor businesses gave presentations on their diversity promotion efforts. The next day, Professor Eun-Ju Lee of the Department of Communication gave a lecture entitled ‘Words that Stir Hate, Words that Still Hate’ as part of the Diversity Dialogue Series. On the Thursday the 23rd, the Diversity Council and the Arts Council Korea jointly held a policy form entitled ‘The Era of Cultural Diversity, the Path of Welcoming for Coexistence.’ Participants presented on cases of hospitality being extended to immigrants and discussed the need for an immigration policy that incorporates a cultural diversity perspective. On the final day, Myung Film Co. president Jae-Myeong Shim gave a lecture entitled ‘The Meaning and Value of Korean Diversity Films.’
Throughout the week, ‘Diverse World, Diverse Sports’ events introduced the worlds of SNU’s shooting team, American football team (the Green Terrors), and lacrosse team (Sharak). The student club Ssial (‘seed’) held a diversity event with the theme of ‘The Environment and Philosophy.’ In addition, the Institute for Culture and Arts put together videos introducing various cultures around the world and screened them on a large electronic display board installed in the Grass Square for the week, as well as holding a mini concert every day at 12 o'clock to introduce music styles (African, Korean traditional, Irish, Latin jazz, and Kazakh classical) from around the world.
Written by Diversity Council
