Christine Mae Sarito

Negotiating a Kisaeng’s Space: Gendered Dependency in Sixteenth and Seventeenth-Century Chosŏn Korea

My PhD dissertation addresses how the kisaeng (기생ㆍ妓生ㆍprofessional female entertainers) navigated the public space of Neo-Confucian Chosŏn Korea in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Through an intersectional analysis, I explore how the kisaeng’s gender and social status created their privilege and oppression. I also discuss how the kisaeng used their labour in the negotiation of their space in Chosŏn society, and how the Imjin War (1592–1598) and the Manchu Invasions of Korea (1627 and 1636–1637) further shaped this negotiation. Finally, I propose to situate the kisaeng in the context of Chosŏn slavery as well as that of global slavery.

since 2021
Ph.D. in History, Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies, University of Bonn, Germany

2014–2017
Master in Public Administration (CAR), Central Philippines State University, Victorias University Campus, Victorias City, Negros Occidental, Philippines

2011–2019
M.A. in Korean History, Sogang University, Seoul, South Korea

2010–2011                                                                                                                         
Korean Language Studies, Sogang University Korean Language Education Center, Seoul, South Korea

2009
Teacher Certificate Program (18 course units), Carlos Hilado Memorial State University, Talisay City, Negros Occidental, Philippines

2005–2009
B.A. in History, University of the Philippines Visayas, Miagao, Iloilo, Philippines

since 2021 
Research Associate in Research Group Coerced Circulation of Knowledge, University of Bonn, Germany

2019–2020
Professorial Lecturer,  University of St. La Salle, Bacolod City, Philippines

2017
Part-time Instructor, Colegio de Sta. Ana de Victorias, Philippines

2014–2015
Social Studies Instructor, Central Philippines State University, Victorias City Campus, Victorias City, Negros Occidental, Philippines

2010
History Instructor, University of the Philippines Visayas, Miagao, Iloilo, Philippines

2010 
Research Staff, Research and Development Service Office, Carlos Hilado Memorial State University, Talisay City, Negros Occidental, Philippines

2009                                                                                                                                     
Social Studies Instructor, Carlos Hilado Memorial State University, Talisay City, Negros Occidental, Philippines

2022                                                                                                                                               
AKS Fellowship Program for Korean Studies, The Academy of Korean Studies

2021                                                                                                                      
Kongressreisenprogramm, DAAD: German Academic Exchange Service (withdrawn)

June–July 2023
Marginal Women's Agency: The Case of the Kisaeng of Chosŏn Korea. Seventh European Congress on World and Global History 2023: Conflict and Inequity, Peace and Justice: Local, Regional and International Perspectives) (Presenter and Panel Convenor: "Voices of the Unseen": Women’s Agency Within the Unequal Power Structures in Early Modern, Colonial, and Contemporary Korea), organised by the European Network in Universal and Global History. Leiden University, The Hague, Netherlands.

April 2023
Invisibilising Yŏak in Public Space: A Focus on the Reign of Chosŏn Dynasty's King Chungjong (1506–1544). Concealing Agents: Intentional Processes of Invisibilization in Modern Asian History. Invisibilised Agents, organisedy by Institut d' Asie Orientale, Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies, and Marie Sklodowska Curie Actions. ENS Lyon, France.

February 2022                                                                                                                                                   Role of the Kisaeng of Chosŏn Korea through the Lens of 'Asymmetrical Dependency.' The 12th Korean Studies Association of Australasia 2021 Biennial Conference, hosted by Monash University Korean Studies and the Korean Studies Association of Australasia

November 2021                                                                                                                      
Role of the Kisaeng of Chosŏn Korea through the Lens of 'Asymmetrical Dependency.' International PhD Seminar on Slavery & Servitude, hosted by Leiden Slavery Studies Association in cooperation with the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies and University of Hull’s Wilberforce Institute for the Study of Slavery and Emancipation