KF뉴스레터-First European Korean Studies Graduate Students' Convention

First European Korean Studies Graduate Students' Convention

The following is an article by Mr. Owen Miller, a graduate student at the SOAS of the University of London who attended the 'First European Korean Studies Graduate Students' Convention' held by the Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany, from June 23-24. The Convention was sponsored by the Korea Foundation, and its purpose was to provide the Korean Studies-major graduate students with the opportunity to share and exchange their studying and research experience and opinions, and build networks among future Korean Studies scholars. - Ed.

When traveling to a neighboring country that shares a common and long linguistic and cultural history, it is slightly embarrassing to have no ability in the country's language. It is even stranger when you are traveling to that country to discuss the language, culture and history of another country many thousands of miles away. When I traveled last month from the United Kingdom to Bochum, Germany, however, to attend the First European Korean Studies Graduate Students' Convention, the hospitality of my hosts meant that there was little chance of my feeling awkward about a complete inability to speak German.

Bochum is a small city in the Ruhr region with a large university, one of only a couple in Germany to have a Korean Studies program. Having negotiated the legendarily efficient German public transportation system from Cologne Airport, I arrived at Ruhr-University Bochum in time for lunch and the welcome address of department head Dr. Marion Eggert.

The first afternoon proceeded with Andreas Mueller-Lee's fascinating paper on the reception of the Chinese novel The Three Kingdoms and its characters in Korea. This presentation was followed by papers on Kim Siseup, non-uniform reduplicants in Korean and minjung woodblock prints by students from as far away as Rutgers, Oslo and Berlin. After grappling with these varied and demanding subjects, the first day was rounded off with more earthy pursuits: a delicious Korean buffet, fine German beer and Euro 2004 football. Unfortunately, the game in question saw Germany knocked out by Czech. Nevertheless, our hosts were philosophical about the loss, or perhaps were too busy pondering the complexities of Korean morphology to mind much.

To kick off the second day, we were treated to a presentation by Dr. Eggert, kindly standing in for the original presenter, who unfortunately was ill. Her talk was on the Yeolhailgi, the 18th century travel diary of Bak Ji-won. This provided a real insight for me into an original thinker who prefigured many later ideas about language and the use of vernacular. Next, Jung-Shim Lee of Leiden University in the Netherlands illuminated some new aspects of the thought of Han Yong-un, taking us into areas of Buddhist thought that I feel unqualified even to comment on.

The afternoon of the second day rounded the conference off with two final papers, the first being my own on the silk merchants of late Joseon. Presenting a paper in front of a group of well-informed strangers is always a slightly nerve-racking experience, but by this time I felt very comfortable with the group of people sitting around the table ―possibly a little too comfortable as my talk slipped into overtime. The last presenter was Myong-in Yu of Ruhr-University Bochum who talked about the reception of the Korean novel Guunmong ('Nine Clouds Dream' in the early 20th century, coveying well the enthusiasm of ordinary Koreans for novels in the vernacular, which had previously been considered uncouth by the Joseon literati.

The second day was once again brought to a close by football. This time it was over a few beers in Bochum's infamous 'Bermuda Triangle' of drinking establishments from which many a student has apparently never returned. Once again, the smell of defeat was in the air as England went down after an epic game to host Portugal. Unlike some of my fellow countrymen I am not one to take these things too seriously and consoled myself instead with German beer and good conversation.

Although the field of Korean Studies is small in Germany, it does have the advantage of a sizable Korean immigrant population, including many second-generation Korean-Germans. This was something that struck me at the convention: It felt quite different from the United Kingdom where the Korean population is relatively small and the majority of young Koreans are visiting as overseas students. The enthusiasm and hospitality of the undergraduate students who hosted me for the two days I was at Bochum also left a lasting impression and gave me a sense of optimism about the future of Korean Studies in Europe.

While the organizers were somewhat disappointed by the small number of applicants for this first convention of graduate students in Europe, it does not diminish the need for this sort of event. Given the solitary nature of postgraduate study, gatherings of this sort, which help to build lasting networks and allow for the exchange of ideas and experiences, are crucial. If this sort of thing can be done on a regular basis in the United States, why not also, albeit on a smaller scale, in Europe too?

Although the small number of participants forced us to learn about areas of Korean Studies in which we had little or no background, this was refreshing in a sense, as most academic lives are focused on tiny areas (Linguistics seems a world away from my subject, so I hope Seunghun Lee will forgive me if I admit that I'm still baffled by optimality theory and non-uniform reduplicants). From a personal point of view, the only regret for me was that there were no other history papers―there must be other historians out there in Europe somewhere.

These small reservations aside, participants generally agreed that this should become a regular event in Europe. Much was achieved in the way of making contacts and exchanging ideas, and hopefully future events will be able to build on the success of Bochum and reflect more fully the depth and breadth of graduate Korean Studies in Europe.

Finally, special thanks must go to Thorsten Traulsen of Ruhr-University Bochum, who worked hard to accommodate us and ensure that everything went smoothly, not to mention sharing with us his theories on the deficiencies of the German football team.

한국국제교류재단

First European Korean Studies Graduate Students' Convention

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First European Korean Studies Graduate Students' Convention

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