Below is my translation of this article covering the BTS Conference.

Appearing on the periphery of world pop culture, BTS became a world star with the appeal of their music and message. And the ones who helped make them so is the network of ARMYs all over the world.

Thanks to the unprecedented nature of the ‘BTS phenomenon’, they have become the subject of academic research, beyond popular culture. Following academic events that researched BTS last year in Korea, recently the first large-scale international BTS conference in London was held, drawing attention.  

The conference was held at Kingston University on the outskirts of London on January 4th and 5th with the title “BTS: A Global Interdisciplinary Conference Project.”

Researchers from various countries who have an affection for BTS gathered together to analyze the BTS phenomenon with an academic perspective and to exchange insights.

140 presentations from participants from 30 countries…”BTS is a seismometer reading the changing world.”

According to Dr. Colette Balmain, a film and media professor at Kingston University who led the event, around 140 presenters attended the conference. 

In an email interview with Yonhap News, Dr. Balmain explained, “We’re living in a global society, and we were interested in how products and people transcend fixed boundaries” and “BTS is the most suitable case because they speak to the world and for the world even while maintaining their local elements, as in, their Koreanness.”

Dr. Balmain sent out a request for papers through academic and social media channels last August and received over 200 abstracts. “It was amazing that there were people researching about BTS in this many fields of study,” Dr. Balmain said.

Participants from more than 30 countries voluntarily gathered, “with no field unrepresented” (as Professor Lee Jiyoung of Sejong University said), including cultural studies, psychology, anthropology, art theory, media studies, philosophy, literature, linguistics, politics, international relations, and education. The age range also varied from undergraduate students to university professors.

They analyzed BTS’s content like music and videos but also looked into the BTS phenomenon from a diverse prism of academic perspectives such as fandom studies, marketing, public diplomacy, and gender studies.

The fact that such a wide range of academic fields gathered with BTS as the point of intersection is because BTS represents the changing ‘spirit of the times’ and gets the fandom to participate too.

In her keynote speech on Saturday, Professor Lee Jiyoung said: “BTS and ARMY are like seismometers that can sense people’s longings and the subtle vibrations of the changing world” and “The reasons for BTS’s success were perhaps by chance consistent with the direction of change that people all around the world desired.”  

Dr. Balmain stated: “For a group that does not sing in English, the global influence of the BTS phenomenon is unprecedented.”

The venue for the ‘academic ARMY’ festival…plans to publish first issue of academic journal on BTS

As those who are both scholars and ARMY and ‘academic ARMY’ gathered in one place, a flexible, horizontal network of ARMY from all around the world unfolded in reality.

Regardless of their experience, social status, nationality, or field, participants became friends and connected not just academically but also emotionally. Because they experienced discrimination and prejudice for being BTS fans in the Western world, they also related to each other and consoled one another.

Professor Lee Jiyoung described the atmosphere to Yonhap News on the phone: “Because of the jokes and sentiments that ARMY share, we seemed like long-time friends even without saying much. I didn’t feel like a well-known university professor.”

She said the atmosphere was quite different from the usual academic conferences, which are formal and stiff.

When a video of BTS’s award show stage was played on a screen at lunchtime, the conference room went wild. Even as the conference was ending, when someone turned on a BTS music video, the participants cheerfully imitated the song and dance, amicably wrapping up the event.

Professor Lee Jiyoung described the excitement of the scene: “Everyone cut back on their sleep just to listen to one more presentation” and “It was a festival of academic ARMY.” She thinks creative collaboration is possible going forward. “At this conference, I saw the possibility of interdisciplinary research as scholars in various fields from colleges around the world all gathered to present freely on one topic,” she emphasized.

Follow-up activities will be pursued. Dr. Balmain and others are preparing to publish an academic book that contains some of the topics from the conference.

Also, it was revealed at the conference that there are plans to publish an online academic journal that covers BTS and ARMY. They will accept submissions starting in March with a goal to publish the first issue this fall.

Dr. Balmain explained: “ARMYs are often described as ‘temperamental teenage girls’, but there are also many fans who are more knowledgeable than scholars. You don’t see that sort of effort.” And “The goal of the conference and journal was to create a ‘safe space’ for sharing and developing ideas.”

There’s also already a discussion about holding a second conference. Dr. Balmain emphasized, “This conference is not the end, it’s the beginning.”