Eleana Kim

This project investigates how conceptions of nature, environment, and the organic world are constructed in the context of ethnic nationalism, global environmentalisms, and political violence by examining the Korean demilitarized zone (DMZ) as a cultural, political, and economic space. Uninhabited for more than 50 years, the DMZ has witnessed an ecological “revitalization” that is now an object of intense interest for natural scientists, politicians, and environmentalists globally. It has transformed from a scar of war to a green zone representing future peace and national unification. The DMZ provides a unique lens through which to examine how landscape, nature, and history are figured through human/environment interactions and imaginative conceptions of the human and non-human.