KF Korean Studies Forum in Austin, Texas
Welcoming Remarks

Amb. Gheewhan Kim, President, The Korea Foundation

Friday, May 24, 2024
AT&T Hotel and Conference Center, Austin, Texas

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen,

Thank you, Senior Vice Provost Sonia Feigenbaum and the Texas Global for organizing this timely, groundbreaking Forum in Austin, Texas, the home of the Silicon Hills.

Thank you, State Representative Jacey Jetton, and distinguished participants for coming, and welcome to the Korean Studies Forum today. I am Gheewhan Kim, president of the Korea Foundation.

I am really happy to co-host the Korean Studies Forum on two important topics: the first session on “regional cooperation and current trends in Korean studies,” and the second session on “academic-industry partnership for developing STEM talent pipeline.”

First of all, I greatly appreciate passion and dedication of Korean studies professors, and their ongoing special efforts to expand and deepen the Korean Studies in the United States.

Since its inception in 1991, the KF has been supporting a total of 161 Korean studies professors around the world, including 99 professors in the United States. To be more specific, 42 professors are in the East coast, 24 in the West coast, 21 in the Midwest, and only 12 in the South.

Currently, KF is strengthening focus on the regional clusters of Korean studies in the Midwest, Northwest, and Southern states, so that their disparities can be reduced sooner than later.

Also, KF is increasing efforts to help Korean Studies universities to strengthen regional cluster collaboration and to pool their resources each other.

A good example is the BTAA Global e-school Program in the Midwest, which is led by the Nam Center for Korean studies at the University of Michigan.

As global interest in Korea builds up, Korean studies are now covering not only classical subjects of language, literature, history, sociology, and anthropology, political science. But, based on new demands, they extend rapidly into new subjects of arts, contents, film, communication, science and technologies, that now cover most academic subjects for Korean Studies.

Austin, Texas, known for its innovation and diversity, is an important venue for Korean studies as well, considering a surge of new demand for Korean studies in where Korean companies have strong presence.

Samsung Austin Semiconductor has been a world-class technology leader with 28 years of history in the Central Texas area. Now, on top of the existing tens of billion dollar memory chips plants in Austin, Samsung has decided to make large investments into advanced high-end foundry chips manufacturing and packaging plants in Taylor City.

Samsung Semiconductors in Austin and Taylor City showcases how Korea-US alliance works to benefit both countries covering almost all aspects of relationship.


I am sure today’s forum will provide a timely opportunity for meaningful discussions on the Korean studies in Austin, Taylor City, Texas and beyond.

I want to say thank you again to the Texas Global leadership and staff for their excellent preparation of this forum, and to all distinguished participants for their presence and valuable contributions..

Thank you.