Religion’s Influence on Memory Activism for Democracy: Korean American Diaspora Activists and the Remembrance of a Pro-democracy Uprising in South Korea

This paper investigates religion’s ongoing contribution to the transmission of the memories of the May 18 Uprising, a historic South Korean pro-democracy uprising against the authoritarian Korean government, and the generation of new multi-racial activist networks in the U.S. Based on qualitative research and drawing from feminist and womanist theo-ethical frameworks on memory, I examine the role of religion in three sites of social memory: haunted bodies, political art, and religious networks. In these three sites, the Christian religion and the Korean spiritual traditions preserve the memory of the movement and regenerate its radical spirit. I argue that such a confluence of religious traditions provides fertile ground for mobilizing resources for cultivating transnational democratic (political and cultural) belonging. More broadly, my presentation invites conversation on how religion uniquely contributes to keeping memories of progressive social movements “alive” for a liberative and decolonial democracy.