Re: Queer Korea

We emphasize that the fundamental issue in the Queer Korea debacle was not mere mistakes, ignorance, or a lack of communication during the problematized research, editing, and translation processes, as some asserted. Instead, it was the pervasive abuse of academic power rooted in imperial US academia in its relation to postcolonial Korea—white academics exploiting marginalized Korean subjects to advance their professional careers, US-based professors monopolizing the legitimate knowledge of “Korea” while gate keeping, gaslighting, and silencing dissenting voices, andsenior scholars in positions of power pulling strings and exerting abusive power over precarious graduate students, junior scholars, and activists. Hence, the Queer Korea debacle must not be seen as an exceptional case; it was a moment of revelation of the very mundane face of Korean studies in US academia.