BTS and their fandom ARMY are heading to the lecture hall. The 5th BTS Global Interdisciplinary Conference, organized by the International BTS Society (ISBS), will take place on July 2–3 at the JBNU Convention Center in Jeonju, South Korea, according to Yonhap News. The event's theme is Next-Generation Hallyu and BTS.
50 Scholars, 10 Countries, One Stage
This year's conference is shaping up to be the most international edition yet. Researchers from South Korea, the United States, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Mongolia, Czech Republic, Canada, Australia, and Japan — 50 scholars in total — are set to present their work, per Yonhap News. Among the confirmed participants is Han Sang-jin, professor emeritus of sociology at Seoul National University and a well-known critical sociologist, who will explore three theoretical approaches to BTS amid global transformation.
A Netflix Director Calls BTS's Return a Modern Odyssey
The conference will also feature a notable voice from the film world. Bao Nguyen, the director behind a Netflix BTS documentary, is set to participate in the event. Nguyen described the group's highly anticipated return in striking terms, according to Yonhap News:
"BTS's return is a modern-day Odyssey."
The conference has been running since 2020, when it first launched at Kingston University in London, UK. It has since been held a total of four times in online and hybrid formats. This July marks its fifth edition and its first time in Jeonju, signaling a growing institutional footprint for BTS studies as a serious academic field — and giving ARMY everywhere even more reason to be proud of the cultural force their favorites have become.
