• Two graduate students from the Department of Performing Arts and Culture won Excellence Awards, and four received Encouragement Awards in the poster presentation session.
  
  

• They presented creative insights and practical proposals on designing future cities through culture in an era of great transformation.
  
  

Catholic University of Korea (President Choi Joon-kyu)’s graduate students from the Department of Performing Arts and Culture demonstrated their academic excellence by winning six awards at the 2025 Jeonju Future Culture Forum.

The “2025 Jeonju Future Culture Forum,” jointly hosted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Jeonju City, and the Jeonju Cultural Foundation, was organized in collaboration with four academic associations—Korean Regional Culture Society, Korean Society for Cultural Economics, Korean Arts Management Society, and Korean Cultural and Arts Management Society—as well as the Korea Culture & Tourism Institute. Held under the theme “In the Era of Great Transition: Questioning the Path of Future Cities Through Culture,” the event brought together over 300 domestic experts in regional culture, cultural tourism, and the arts.

Graduate students from the Catholic University of Korea participated in the poster presentation session, where they received high praise for offering creative insights and practical proposals on shaping the future of cities through culture in this transformative era. Their participation resulted in six awards in total.

In the Korean Regional Culture Society session, MA student Ma Cho (advisor: Professor Kim Young-joo) received an Excellence Award for their presentation on “The Impact of the Immersive Experience of the Game Black Myth: Wukong on the Cultural Identity of Generation Z.” Sa Chenhee (advisor: Professor Kim Young-joo) also earned an Excellence Award for her narrative research titled “The Process of Forming the Professional Identity of Art Instructors as Leaders of Art Clubs in Chinese Schools.” Heo Jin (advisor: Professor Kim In-seol) won a Encouragement Award for “A Comparative Study on the Trends and Discourses in Live-Performance Research in Korea and China.”

In the Korean Arts Management Society session, graduate student Jo Geon (advisor: Professor Kim Young-joo) received an Encouragement Award for a narrative study on “The Embodied Cognitive Changes in Audiences of Immersive Theater in Henan Province.” Graduate student Jo Ri (advisor: Professor Kim Eun-hye) also received an Encouragement Award for “The Contemporary Development of Folk Culture Through the Case of the Fuzhou Folk Ritual ‘Yuxin’.”

Additionally, in the Korean Cultural and Arts Management Society poster session, the jointly presented work by graduate students Jeung Shin and Lee Woo-dong (advisors: Professors Kim Young-joo and Lee Jin-woo), titled “Strategic Practices of Complex Cultural Spaces from a Cultural Marketing Perspective,” received an Encouragement Award.

The award recipients reflected, “Delving deeper into our research topics allowed us to consider not only their social relevance but also their practical application, making this a truly meaningful experience.” They added, “Exchanging ideas with researchers from diverse fields gave us a renewed appreciation for the interdisciplinary potential and public value of cultural and artistic research.”

Professor Kim Young-joo of the Department of Performing Arts and Culture commented, “These awards show how creative perspectives that connect culture, cities, arts, and society can be translated into academic achievements. I hope the students’ research, grounded in their unique viewpoints, will help envision a cultural path for future cities.”