Our Mission:

The People’s Archive is an archive of oral history interviews on a range of topics that seek to widen our understanding of experiences of gender, sexuality, military service, and more. In particular, The People’s Archive begins its focus on the relationship between identity and power in South Korea – a country whose media culture has increasingly become the focus of American attention at the same time that its discriminatory practices against women, queer people, trans people, people of color, and more have escaped transnational scrutiny. As queer activist and drag performer Heezy Yang/Hurricane Kimchi (a guest on this podcast) has argued, the world has its attention directed at K-pop, “but what about K-homophobia?” These conversations we have recorded aim to explore topics often hidden in discussions of South Korea.

Want to Contribute?

We are looking for interviewees, artifacts, information, interns/volunteers! To contribute in any capacity, please email Kera Lovell at KeraLovell@gmail.com or our team at PeoplesArchivePodcast@gmail.com

• INTERVIEWS on taboo topics in Korea, including: gender, sexuality, race, disability, queer socializing, feminism, activism, violence, the Korean military, drag, trans experiences, and more. We can schedule the interview around your schedule.
• ARTIFACTS on taboo topics in Korea, including: photographs, videos, and audio recordings, as well as the following items we can photograph: art, posters, clothing and accessories, hand-drawn or homemade maps, miscellaneous objects – any random object will do, as long as you have a story that connects it from a taboo topic to a place/space in Korea!
• INFORMATION on taboo topics, including: queer organizations, important locations, past experiences of parades or protests, and more.
• TEAM MEMBERS! This project has largely been funded through Kera Lovell’s personal funds as well as TAships/RAships on communications, design, and audio production through the University of Utah’s Asia Campus.

Series Production Team:

This oral history podcast is hosted by Kera Lovell, Ph.D. whose research focuses on race and gender in 20th-century social movements. These interviews largely took place as part of guest lectures and other campus events at the University of Utah’s Asia Campus in South Korea.

Several students and alumni of the University of Utah’s Asia Campus in South Korea have been part of the production process of this podcast over the past 2 years, including:

2023-2024: Audio Editor/Audio Producer: Varuni Ravi – University of Utah Psychology Major based at the Asia Campus.

2024: Communications Manager: Rejoice Potja – University of Utah student who studied at the UAC in South Korea during the Spring 2024 semester.

2023: Lead Producer/Researcher: Shakerra Bartley – University of Utah graduate student in the Master’s of Public Health Program studying the impact of societal issues on the population. She has recently received the McCrillis Excellence Award in Research and the Arts for her mini docuseries “Stories of the Untold.”

2023: Audio Producer/Audio Editor: Katie Park – University of Utah Film and Media Arts Major who studied at the UAC in South Korea during the Spring 2023 semester. 

2023: Communications Manager: Darian Brown – Communications major at UAC based in Korea; She is planning to apply for GKS and attend graduate school in Korea once she graduates from UAC in Spring 2024. 

2023: Audio Editor: Joel Atkinson – University of Utah student based at the Utah Asia Campus.

2019-2020: Audio Producer/Interviewer: Charles Hong – University of Utah 24’ – Marketing Peer Advisor at University of Utah Office for Global Engagement, English Interpreter at Republic of Korea Marine Corps

2019-2020: Production Manager: Alaina Choi – University of Utah graduate in Communications based at the Utah Asia Campus.

Thank you to the University of Utah’s Asia Campus in South Korea for supporting this project through exploratory learning scholarships, payment for guest lecturers through IDIS department funds and the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Fund, as well as free audio editing software through the University of Utah.