My dissertation topic is a cultural history of artists and their activities from the oldest and largest Korean diasporic communities, exploring in particular the ways in which they express self and construct identity. I focus specifically on artists who participated in large-scale controversial exhibitions including the 2002 Kwangju Biennial's There: Sites of the Korean Diaspora and the subsequent 2004 Korean Diaspora and Arts Symposium in Tokyo. What I have found is that even as the dissertation brings light to multiple identity, indicating how the nation-state is increasingly challenged by globalization, the paradox of diasporic art is that there are those artists who reinforce monocultural or singular conceptions of national culture or state affiliation for diasporic subjects. In other words, activities of diasporic artists, their cultural production, and subsequent cultural networks characterize increasing formations of transnational interactions and trans-state connections that evoke loyalties and solidarities that both undermine and support traditional allegiances such as kinship ties and ethnic relations that are part of territorial nation-states.

Since the countries where overseas Korean artists produce their artwork are far-flung, from Almaty (Kazahkstan), Sao Paolo, Yanji (China), and Frankfurt to other cities in Japan, the U.S. and Europe, a web-based platform for display and discovery becomes all the more compelling. Access through the web anticipates a continued collaboration with artists, curators, and others involved in this project who have lent time and energy to provide the material, energy, and thus sustenance to formations of diasporic activities. Also, the digital component is one that allows for the visualization of these works and facilitates communication, juxtaposition, and interaction, aiding our discovery of otherwise hidden relationships (see moowheel visual). Depending on which attributes end-users emphasize, they will inevitably reconfigure diasporic artists' identities, therefore manifesting how complicated their histories, experiences, and expressions are.

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"Traversing digital boundaries" as a junior scholar in Asian studies (particularly as a Koreanist) has made apparent other structural boundaries that are inherent in our practices as humanists in academia. For example, as the digital components of my own work have progressed in the past several years, I have continually been challenged by the boundaries among disciplines (not just resistance in social sciences and humanities, but also the boundaries b/t or among humanists, computer sciences, and designers, many of whom are working together for the first time), generational boundaries between junior and senior scholars, technological boundaries between those who do and do not have web access, cultural boundaries between English and non-English speaking academic/diasporic communities, boundaires among political agendas, and others.

Such issues may not be the focus of HASTAC III's panels, presentations, and workshops, and perhaps my concerns seem regressive juxtaposed to the exciting projects and innovations presented at HASTAC this year, but certainly the HASTAC Scholars' forum have addressed and discussed some of the above issues that must be overcome so that hopefully in the future, we will no longer need to signify the "digital" in digital humanities because it will unquestionably be relevant to academic pursuits in the social sciences and the humanities.