The Crisis of Humanities Research Labor in South Korea

This article diagnoses the current unsustainability of research labor in the humanities in Korea as a 'crisis' and proposes the establishment of a researcher safety net and community as an alternative. To do so, it first examines why research labor in the humanities is in crisis and what alternative community and institutional changes are needed to resolve this crisis. In doing so, it explores the possibilities for rebuilding humanities academic communities, institutional change, and improving their material foundations. What's important is that we have to have a sense of crisis, that the academic community is no longer sustainable, and that we have to try to change it ourselves. To do this, we need to create a political community. It is through this political community that we can build researcher safety nets and drive institutional change, such as a national PhD system. It is necessary to explore the possibility of establishing the sustainability of humanities research in Korean society. This is essential to make education more public.