KF뉴스레터-Special Time to Be Exposed to Korean Society and Culture

Special Time to Be Exposed to Korean Society and Culture

Since 1997, the East-West Center and the University of Hawaii have
co-organized the Institute on Korean Culture and Society, a series of intensive faculty-development summer sessions, as part of an Asian Studies Development Program.
This year, the fifth program session was held for three weeks (May 28-June 17) in Hawaii and Korea. The following are the interview comments of Professor Nancy Stalker, Department of Asian Studies, University of Texas, and Professor Zhiqun Zhu, International College, University of Bridgeport.

Q: What are your impressions about
this year’s program?
Stalker: It was special, in a word. It was my first time to visit Korea, and this served as an occasion to understand Korea in general. It is not easy to meet with such a great number of Asia specialists on one occasion. It was really great to acquire various perspectives from their in-depth and effective lectures.
Zhu: This was my first visit to Korea, too. As an Asian, I had a good opportunity to compare Korea and China, and to see and feel Korean culture. Culture seems to be very well preserved in Korea in many ways. I was also amazed to see how clean the streets were.

Q: How will you utilize the experiences of this program?
Stalker: I tried to see history from a Korean perspective, rather than a Japanese one, during this visit. I am interested in the Japanese colonial rule period, so I want to learn many things about that period. Through this program, I learned many things. When I return home, I plan to gather information and study the religious movement in Korea and the Korean situation in East Asian gender studies. I am also interested in short stories written by Korean women, which I also hope to utilize.
Zhu: First of all, as a political scientist, I can say that the biggest benefit of this program was the chance to personally interact with Korean society. I learned much more about Korea and built a foundation for research through this program, so I intend to share this knowledge with my students and to conduct additional research on Korea in the future. Our university does not yet offer graduate courses on East Asia, but my program experiences might help to create a graduate course in East Asian studies.

Q: Finally, do you have any suggestions or comments on the program?
Stalker: The program organized by the Korea Foundation gave me an opportunity to experience what no other institution could provide. It was well-balanced, covering a diverse array of issues, including culture, history, economy, and politics. I am very much pleased that the program gave me insight into what to study and where to find materials. If there is one thing to consider, I would recommend that it might be better to allow participants to have individual schedules, according to their interests, after being together for the first week. Other than that, it was really a great program, and I really enjoyed it.
Zhu: First of all, I would like to express my appreciation to the Korea Foundation. In the case of this kind of program organized by Japan, it was solely for Japan specialists. So other professors found it difficult to attend. This program about Korea was excellent because it was open to those who were interested in and planning to do research on Korea. Based on what I learned from this program, I will make more efforts to conduct research on the Korean War and Korea’s foreign policy.

Institute on Korean Culture and Society

The Institute is designed to introduce Korea and Korean studies to humanities and social science faculty teaching at American universities and colleges, particularly specialists of China and Japan who lack a thorough grounding in Korean studies.

The primary goal of the program is to enable the selected faculty to integrate more information on Korea into their curricular and campus offerings. This series of institutes has been sponsored by the Korea Foundation and the Freeman Foundation.
The Institute commences with a one to two-week orientation to Korea at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where participants meet specialists of Korean history and society and are introduced to key primary and secondary sources on Korea. Daily sessions on the basics of the Korean language are also part of the program. The participants then travel to Korea where they spend two weeks in Seoul and the countryside.
Seoul National University and Kyongpook National University have partnered with the Institute to assure the success of this program.

After the first week in Seoul, during which the participants receive additional lectures on contemporary Korean culture and society from some of Korea’s leading experts, the participants travel throughout the Kyongsang region looking at both historical and contemporary Korea. Sites visited include Haeinsa, Kyongju, Ulsan, and Andong.

Once the participants have returned to their home campuses, they report that they enjoy being able to introduce Korea to their students and other colleagues. Many have developed new courses that focus on Korea, others have revamped their syllabi to assure Korea greater prominence. Several have returned to Korea as Fulbright grantees, while others have led faculty travel seminars to Korea for similar academic experiences.

ASDP has had a dramatic impact on smaller campuses around the United States
and has extended its Korea program to faculty from Australia and Latin America.
In addition, it sponsors special workshops on Korea at central locations where other faculty can learn about Korea. The goal of ASDP is to infuse the undergraduate curriculum with accurate and complete knowledge about Asia, and has contributed greatly to insuring the prominence of Korean studies in American undergraduate education.
Edward J. Shultz, Professor, University of Hawaii-Manoa

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Special Time to Be Exposed to Korean Society and Culture

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