한국국제교류재단

Korean language and Korean Studies subjects have been taught at the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom since 1979 through the Centre for Korean Studies, a constituent unit of the School of East Asian Studies. The School was initially set up as the Centre for Japanese Studies as a result of a British Government White Paper, the Hayter Report of the early 1960s, which encouraged the teaching of non-European languages outside of the older universities of Oxford, Cambridge, London, Durham, and Edinburgh. From its inception, the Centre for Japanese Studies was an innovator in the field of East Asian Studies, being the first University department to teach primarily about modern Japan, to teach the modern Japanese language, to institute the idea of dual honours (double major) degrees with other subjects, and to teach from a social science perspective. For these reasons, the department was situated within the Faculty of Social Sciences to emphasize the uniqueness of its approach.

The teaching of Korean Studies at Sheffield began in 1979 when instruction in the Korean language was made a mandatory component of the dual honours degree programme Linguistics and Japanese. In 1980, with a generous five-year grant from the Korea Sanhak Foundation, the first Lectureship (professorship in American terminology) in Modern Korean Studies was established at the University. It was decided that Korean Studies should follow the same innovative format established by Japanese Studies at Sheffield by focussing primarily on the modern Korean language, on modern Korea from a social scientific perspective, and to offer both single honours and dual honours degree programmes. These decisions in turn led to the creation of the Centre for Korean Studies as an academic unit separate from the Centre for Japanese Studies.

Development of Korean Studies Programme

From 1987, the Centre introduced the teaching of specialised Korean Studies subjects other than the Korean language, such as Korean history, contemporary Korean society, and traditional Korean culture. Concurrent with these academic developments, the Korean Studies library collection was being built up, initially with substantial assistance from the Korean Embassy in London and the Daesan Foundation, and subsequently by the Korea Research Foundation and the Korean Foundation as well as through internal funding within the University. By 1987, the Korean Studies Collection consisted of more than 6,000 items, two-thirds of which were in the vernacular language. By 2001, the Collection had doubled in size to around 12,000 items making it one of the largest research collections on Korea in Europe. Following the already established pattern at Sheffield, the focus of the Collection is on modern Korea (from the mid-nineteenth century onward) with especially large collections of books, materials and research resources on economics, politics, contemporary society and business, although there are also substantial resources on religion, folklore, and modern and contemporary literature.

In 1990, the University brought together the Centres for Japanese Studies and Korean Studies into a larger umbrella unit called the School of East Asian Studies in order to a more coherent programme of East Asian Studies within the University. This development reflected the University administrations view that Korean Studies was part of the mainstream teaching of the University, that it was not an optional extra to other degree work. The creation of the School of East Asian Studies led rapidly to three successive developments, the offering of four-year degree programmes in Korean Studies, the introduction of four-year degree programmes in Chinese Studies, and the introduction of three-year degree programmes in generic East Asian Studies. In 1992, five four-year degree programmes in Korean Studies were instituted, (Single Honours Korean Studies, and dual honours degree programmes with Japanese Studies, Linguistics, Business Studies, and Economics), and the first cohort of students were admitted. The Dual Honours programme in Japanese and Korean Studies has been replaced with two new programmes, Korean Studies with Japanese and Japanese Studies with Korean where the student studies the two languages but the first mentioned subject is the lead subject requiring the student to spend a year in that country getting intensive language tuition. The addition of an East Asian musicologist to the staff of the Music Department enabled the introduction of another new programme, a four-year dual honours degree in Music and Korean Studies.

Operation of Korean Studies Courses

On average, four to five students are admitted each year to pursue a four-year undergraduate degree programme in Korean Studies, usually Single Honours Korean Studies. Because of the Sixth-Form system in England requiring students to study two years in a Sixth Form college before entering university, most British undergraduate degree programmes are three-year programmes. Sheffield Korean, Chinese and Japanese degree programmes are four-year degrees because one year is spent in Korea, China or Japan receiving intensive language tuition. The structure of the Korean Studies programme consists of a first year in Sheffield when the student gets a grounding in the Korean language (7 contact hours per week) and history, as well as studying other East Asian Studies subjects. In the second year, the student will spend the entire academic session at Yonsei University receiving 600 hours of intensive tuition, and is required to do a research project on an aspect of contemporary Korean society. In the third and fourth years, the student will continue to study the Korean language along with learning Chinese characters and to take specialised subjects in Korean Studies such as Traditional Culture of Korea, Contemporary Korean Society, Modern Korean Literature, Contemporary Korean Literature, and Business and Management in Korea. In addition to those subjects, students can do modules (courses in American English) in Chinese or Japanese Studies or in generic East Asian Studies. In the final year, the student must write a 15,000 word dissertation on an approved subject using Korean language sources, and to give an extensive oral presentation in Korean on an academic subject related to the topic of the dissertation.

Korean Studies is also embedded in the three-year generic degree programmes in East Asian Studies. Although students doing the Single Honours or Dual Honours degrees in East Asian regional studies are not required to study a language, most students take non-specialist modules in one of the three East Asian languages. Many take Korean language as an option as well as Korean Studies subject modules. Modules specially designed for these East Asian degrees contain a substantial Korean content and include such subjects as Religion and Society in East Asia, Transformation of East Asia from 1850 to 1950, Imperialism in East Asia, Political Development of East Asia, Business and Society in East Asia, Language and Society in East Asia, East Asian Cinema, and the Philosophical Traditions of East Asia. These modules are taught in part or whole by staff members of the Centre for Korean Studies. The total number of students registered for all Korean Studies or Korea-related subjects over the past four years has averaged between 165 and 170 students per year, indicating that Korean Studies is an integral part of the teaching of both the department and the University.

In addition to undergraduate teaching, the Centre for Korean Studies offers a taught M.A. (with thesis) in Modern Korean Studies and contributes to the teaching of other M.A. programmes in the School. The Korean M.A. provides students with training in research methods, tuition in elementary or advanced Korean language, and tuition in one of the three areas of business, language and literature, or culture and society. The candidate is required to write a 20,000 word thesis on an approved subject. Over the past ten years, the Centre in conjunction with staff within the School of East Asian Studies has offered a wide range of supervision for post-graduate research (M.Phil. and Ph.D.) including such subjects as Korean religion and modern thought, agricultural development, national security, divided families and national reunification, Korean linguistics, contemporary women? fiction, and the Korean educational system.

The current staff of the Centre includes the following full-time members of staff: Dr. James H. Grayson (religion, philosophy, folklore), Dr. Hyangjin Lee (sociology, sociology of cinema), Dr. Judith Cherry (business and economics), and Ms. Domi Kim (Korean language instructor), and the following part-time members of staff: Dr. James A. Foley (history) and Dr. Agnita Tennant (nee Hong Myonghui, Korean literature).



Professor James H. Grayson is currently Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Director of the Centre for Korean Studies in the School of East Asian Studies of the University of Sheffield. Trained as an anthropologist, and an ordained Methodist minister, Dr. Grayson served for 16 years as an educational missionary with the Korean Methodist Church. He taught anthropology and the history of world religions at Kyungpook National University and Keimyung University in Daegu, and latterly at the Methodist Theological Seminary in Seoul. He writes and researches about Korean religions, particularly about the transmission of religion, the religion of the ancient period and Christianity in Korea, and about Korean oral folklore. His books include Early Buddhism and Christianity in Korea (1985), Korea: A Religious History (1989 and to be republished in 2002) and Myths and Legends from Korea (2001) as well as many articles based upon field research. He was decorated by the Korean Government with the Munhwa hunjang (Order of Cultural Merit) in 1995. - Ed.