The 6th Ewha–Hyunwoo Women and Peace Academic Award Ceremony Held N
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Kim Aera’s <Girls Who Became Facebook Stars>and Kim Sungkyung’s <The Women Who Survived Create the World> received the awards.
The Korean Women’s Institute (Director: Lee Euna) held the award ceremony for the “2025 6th Ewha–Hyunwoo Women and Peace Academic Award,” sponsored by the Hyunwoo Cultural Foundation, on October 27th (Monday) and presented awards to authors Kim Aera and Kim Sungkyung.
Celebrating its sixth year, the Ewha–Hyunwoo Women and Peace Academic Award was established in 2020 to reaffirm the contributions of Ewha Womans University and the Korean Women’s Institute to the field of women’s studies and to carry its legacy forward. The award recognizes and encourages scholars from various academic disciplines who have contributed to expanding knowledge about Korean society and women based on feminist theories and methodologies. As in the previous year, two categories “Academic Research,”and“Academic Essay” were recognized with notable publications selected as award-winning works.
From left: Award recipients Kim Aera and Kim Sungkyung at the Ewha–Hyunwoo Women and Peace Academic Award Ceremony.
In theAcademic Researchcategory, the award went to <Girls Who Became Facebook Stars>by author Kim Aera. The review committee noted, “This book effectively illustrates how teenage girlhood is incorporated into digital capitalism and how femininity is absorbed into the framework of play, pleasure, and the creative economy within the neoliberal system. It received high praise for its strong feminist implications in both methodology and theory.”
In theAcademic Essaycategory, the award was presented to <The Women Who Survived Create the World>by author Kim Sungkyung. This book is based on research conducted by the author, a North Korea scholar, drawing from interviews and materials about women she encountered over many years in North Korea, particularly during the ‘Arduous March,’ in the marketplaces, and throughout subsequent state-led economic development processes. Despite the challenges of conducting direct field research and interviews, the book was commended for its methodological approach to constructing women’s narratives using a variety of sources.
The recipient of theAcademic Researchaward, Kim Aera, earned her Ph.D. in Women’s Studies from Ewha Womans University and currently serves as a Research Fellow at the Korean Women’s Development Institute. Her main research areas include gender analysis of women’s work, culture, political participation, and gender relations in the context of digital technology’s development and transformation. In addition to her award-winning bookGirls Who Became Facebook Stars, her works includeDigital Aesthetic Sense, and she has co-authoredFantasy Without Original,The Right to Argue Better,Digital Media and Feminism,Girls, Act, Speak, and Think, andWe Need Feminist Teachers.
The recipient of theAcademic Essayaward, Kim Sungkyung, is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at Sogang University. She earned her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Essex in the United Kingdom. Her main research interests include North Korean society and culture, migration, women, youth, and film. In addition to her award-winning bookThe Women Who Survived Create the World, she is the author ofDivided Minds: A Social Psychology of Divisionand co-author ofCreating Minds Beyond Division,New Stories of North Korea,The Map of Divided Minds, andThe Experience of Defection and Its Cinematic Representations.
Since establishing Korea’s first women’s studies course in 1977, the Korean Women’s Institute has led women’s studies research in the nation for nearly half a century. By disseminating feminist theories and methodologies across academic disciplines, the Institute has continued to broaden the scope of women’s studies in Korea. Going forward, the Korean Women’s Institute will continue its efforts to expand knowledge on Korean society and women through the Ewha–Hyunwoo Women and Peace Academic Award and various other academic research initiatives.