KF뉴스레터-Ardent Desire to Further Promote Korean Studies

Ardent Desire to Further Promote Korean Studies

In spring 2007, the Korea Foundation established regional advisory committees, comprising Korean Studies specialists at home and abroad, in an effort to implement its Korean Studies support programs in a more effective and substantive manner. The advisory committees for the regions of North America, Europe and Oceania are expected to play an instrumental role in assisting the Foundation to formulate support strategies, tailored to the varied Korean Studies and socioeconomic environments of each region, and to evaluate program applications under a more ive and professional process. As such, it was especially meaningful that the first meeting of the Korea Foundation’s North American Advisory Committee for North America was recently convened at the University of Washington, Seattle (October 12-13), to discuss the future of Korean Studies in North America, in particular regard to the Foundation’s Korean Studies support programs.

Korean Studies in North America
With the participation of 11 advisory committee members and four Foundation representatives, including President Yim Sung-joon, the meeting focused on the current status, priority tasks, and improvement measures needed to advance Korean Studies in North America. Passionate discussions among the participants continued throughout the weekend in an effort to reach a consensus on establishing a basic strategy to promote Korean Studies in North American over the next decade.
On the first day, the Subcommittee for Insti-tutional Projects was convened to review 20 applications for the Foundation’s 2008 institutional support for North American universities.
To reinforce the evaluation process, which had previously involved only a review of application s and materials, the Foundation staff members sat down with the five subcommittee members, who had completed a review of the applications in advance. In this way, the discussions focused on critical analyses of substantive issues, which resulted in a more in-depth evaluation and decision-making process. It was also noteworthy that the format allowed everyone to frankly express their personal views, whether positive or negative.
On the second day, the session began with remarks from President Yim Sung-joon, who confirmed the Foundation’s commitment to continue its support for Korean Studies programs in North America. In addition, he cited the need to carefully examine the differing environment and demand-supply relations, by individual discipline and phase, and to draw up a more elaborate and long-term strategy for more effective program support.
Thereafter, the advisory committee members discussed the key issues and recommendations outlined in reports of the Korean Studies workshops, on the humanities and social sciences, held in 2006 and 2005, respectively. In a summary report on the humanities, Professor Jahyun Kim Haboush of Columbia University noted that the most critical issue for Korean Studies in North America was to an institutional setting conducive to the dissemination of humanistic knowledge on Korea and the nurturing of students. She called on leading universities with core Korean Studies faculty and related capacity to focus their efforts on fostering outstanding graduate students.
As for Professor Shin Gi-Wook of Stanford University, in his report on social sciences, he identified problems related to a conflict between ”mainstream social sciences” and ”area studies,” which can negatively impact faculty appointments, education of graduate students, and research on Korean Studies. He also advised the Foundation to pay more attention to and provide support for the career development of junior scholars and the continued education of graduate students, rather than establishing new faculty positions, for the sustained development of Korean Studies in the social science fields.

The Road Untaken
The discussions of the Korean Studies scholars and the Foundation’s executives and staff could be characterized as earnest and intense, yet amicable, exchanges of opinions and thoughts. One of the most discussed agenda items involved suggestions to improve the Foundation’s graduate scholarship program. While the advisory committee members all agreed that the existing program had contributed greatly to training the next generation of scholars, they thought it was now time to implement a more comprehensive support system, which included an increase in grant amount, multi-year assistance, and added flexibility so that support could be applied to recruitment efforts and writing of doctoral dissertations. There was a consensus that graduate and post-doctoral fellowships should be offered to Korean nationals, in order to encourage Korean students, in their final phase of doctoral studies in North America, to pursue Korean Studies, especially in the social science and pre-modern fields.

As for its scholarship programs, the Foun-dation’s Fellowship Program Department is now comprehensively evaluating possible measures to improve its support activities. Along with fully considering the valuable advice and expertise of the advisory committee in the implementation of its programs, the Foundation will do its utmost to continuously promote Korean Studies in North America in more effective ways.
Indeed, Korean Studies programs in North America represent an ideal model for other regions, in terms of academic level and scale. For example, Korean Studies in North America has enjoyed steady growth, with notable gains in the number of faculty positions and courses, and the education of outstanding graduate students at several prominent universities. Nevertheless, it is unfortunate that Korean Studies has yet to firmly establish itself within the mainstream academia of North America.
However, the ardent dedication of the advisory committee members to the advancement of Korean Studies, which was readily evident throughout the weekend session, reminded me of “The Road Untaken,” the classic poem of Robert Frost: “...Two roads diverged in the woods, I took the one less traveled by, and that made all the difference.” These Korean Studies scholars have chosen a difficult and lonely path, but it has made all the difference. Now, it is my fervent hope that they will continue to make all the difference in getting Korean Studies into the mainstream of North America’s academic sector.

한국국제교류재단

Ardent Desire to Further Promote Korean Studies

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Ardent Desire to Further Promote Korean Studies

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