Summary
The Institute for Japanese Studies at Seoul National University (SNU) and the International Association for Reconciliation Studies (IARS) successfully hosted the 6th Annual Conference of IARS (Seoul Conference 2025) from July 14 to 18, 2025, at the Samsung Convention Center, Hoam Faculty House, SNU. Under the theme “Bridging a Division”, about 150 scholars, activists, and religious leaders from more than 20 countries across five continents gathered for two special conferences and 26 panel sessions.
Focusing on Korea’s experiences of colonial rule, war, division, and dictatorship, the conference explored reconciliation through the lens of memory–responsibility–reconciliation. Panels addressed topics such as transitional justice, reparations, memory and museums, theology of reconciliation, youth narratives, decolonization, and art, creating an interdisciplinary forum where theory and case studies intersected.
As the first IARS annual conference held in Korea, it provided an opportunity to reflect on internal divisions and East Asian conflicts from a global perspective. Founded in 2020, IARS holds annual conferences across continents, building an academic foundation that re-examines memory, justice, peace, citizenship, and postcolonial discourse through the study of reconciliation.
Schedule
Day 1 14 July
- Opening Ceremony & Reception Event
Day 2 15 July
- Interfaith Dialogue in Asia for Peace and Reconciliation
- Transitional Justice at the End of War: Korean Unification or Post-Unification?
- Who is qualified to talk about “Reconciliation”? The gap in Northeast Asia’s historical perception and the way to reconciliation
- State Violence, Distortion, and Reconciliation
- Religious and Social Pathways to Reconciliation in Divided Societies
- Reconciliation and the Practice of International Relations
- “Heritage of Dignity,” the UN Cemetery: Remembrance and Reconciliation of the Korean War
- Postcolonial Legacies and Reconciliation
- Kim Dae-jung: A Statesman of Reconciliation
- Decolonization and Identity in Island Territories: Politics of Memory and Reconciliation in Okinawa, Amami, and Taiwan
- Struggling to Reconcile in a Divided Korea
Day 3 16 July
- Reconciliation Studies as a Method of Korea-Japan Dialogue
- The International Politics of Reparations and the Evolution of the Concept of Reconciliation
- International Comparison and Universality of Decolonization
- Reconciliation through Art and Art History
- Voice, Narrative, and Storytelling in Reconciliation
- Reconciliation through International Higher Education: From the Individual to the Institution
- Reconciliation and Security: Complementarity or Opposition
- Systemic Approach to Sustainable Reconciliation
- Frameworks of Reconciliation
- Reparation in Transition
- Gender, Youth, and Marginalized
Day 4 17 July
- Insights and Suggestions for Peace on the Korean Peninsula
- Reflection and Alternatives for Peace on the Korean Peninsula
- Reckoning with the Past and Framing in Presents
- Ideals and Realities in the Restitution of Looted Cultural Property as a Symbol of Reconciliation between Japan and Republic of Korea (ROK)
- Negotiating Reconciliation and Political Strategies
- Re-Examination of Challenges Encountered by Koreans Following Japan’s Defeat in the Pacific War
- Museum, Revisionism, and Public History
- Building Bridges: Analyzing the Role of Education for Reconciliation and Sustainable Peace in a Polarized World
- IARS General Assembly Meeting
Day 5 18 July
- DMZ Area Excursion Program
