Korean studies


Korean studies is an academic discipline that focuses on the study of Korea, which includes South Korea, North Korea, and diasporic Korean populations. Areas commonly included under this rubric include Korean history, Korean culture, Korean literature, Korean art, Korean music, Korean language and linguistics, Korean sociology and anthropology, Korean politics, Korean economics, Korean folklore, Korean ethnomusicology and increasingly study of Korean popular culture. It may be compared to other area studies disciplines, such as American studies and Chinese studies. Korean studies is sometimes included within a broader regional area of focus including "East Asian studies".
The term Korean studies first began to be used in the 1940s, but did not attain widespread currency until South Korea rose to economic prominence in the 1970s. In 1991, the South Korean government established the Korea Foundation to promote Korean studies around the world.
Korean studies was originally an area of study conceived of and defined by non-Koreans. Korean scholars of Korea tend to see themselves as linguists, sociologists, and historians, but not as "Koreanists" unless they have received at least some of their education outside Korea and are academically active in languages other than Korean, or work outside Korean academia. In the mid-2000s, Korean universities pushing for more classes taught in English began to hire foreign-trained Koreanists of Korean and non-Korean origin to teach classes. This was often geared towards foreigners in Korean graduate schools. There are now graduate school programs in Korean Studies in most of the major Korean universities. BA programs in Korean Studies have now been opened at two Korean universities. The BA programs are distinctive in that they have few foreign students.

Debates in the field

What exactly Korean Studies is, who is teaching it, who is learning, and what should be taught continues to be debated.
There has been a small series of works debating Korean Studies published in academic journals. A sort of historical overview by Charles Armstrong titled "Development and Directions of Korean Studies in the United States" comes strongly from Armstrong's perspective teaching history at Columbia University, as his work: "Focusing on the discipline of history,... traces the emergence of Korean Studies in the 1950s, the evolution of the field and the changing backgrounds of American scholars working on Korea in the 1960s to 1980s, and the rapid growth of Korean Studies since the early 1990s." Another historian, Andre Schmid published an early contribution to the debate in 2008, challenging the ways that English academia was pushing or shaping the directions of Korean Studies. Schmid explained, "In the unequal global cultural arena where English still dominates, the direction of Korean Studies in the United States disproportionately shapes international representations of Korean culture." University of Berkeley Sociologist John Lie contributed two pieces to the debate, the more recent of which challenged the Korean Studies, claiming "senior Koreanists seem rather content with their progress, telling their followers bizarre tales from the field and seeking to reproduce the archaic and mistaken Harvard East Asia paradigm." Lie discusses the weaknesses he sees in this paradigm for the remainder of the essay. In 2018 CedarBough T Saeji published an article in Acta Koreana bringing in the perspective of teaching Korean Studies in Korea, focusing on "1) the struggle to escape the nation-state boundaries implied in the habitual terminology, particularly when teaching in the ROK, where the country is unmarked, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is marked the implications of the expansion of Korean Studies as a major within the ROK; 3) in-class navigations of Korean national pride, the trap of Korean uniqueness and orientalization and attitudes toward the West."

Institutions

Research institutes in South Korea

  • The Academy of Korean Studies est.1978
  • The Korea Research Foundation est.1981
  • The Korea Foundation est.1991.
  • The Korean Studies Institute est.1995.

    Korean studies programs in South Korea

  • Academy of Korean Studies - this is only with no undergraduate program
  • Dong-A University -
  • Ewha Womans University - B.A. degree program and M.A. degree program
  • Hankuk University of Foreign Studies — and Graduate program
  • Hanyang University -
  • Korea University -
  • Pusan National University -
  • Silla University —
  • Sangmyung University -
  • Seoul National University -
  • Sogang University - Undergraduate and Graduate program of the School of Integrated Knowledge and Graduate program
  • Yonsei University -

    Institutions abroad

The following are the major centers that have opened Korean Studies outside Korea.

Asia

China

  • Beijing Foreign Studies University — School of Asian and African Studies

    Japan

  • National Museum of Ethnology
  • Tenri University — Department of Foreign Languages
  • University of Tokyo —

    Vietnam

  • Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City —

    Taiwan

  • National Chengchi University —
  • National Taiwan Normal University — Center for Korean Studies
  • National University of Kaohsiung — Center for Korean Studies
  • Chinese Cultural University —

    America

United States

is one of the countries with the highest interest in Korean studies, with Korean language and Korean studies courses open at all Ivy League universities, including Harvard University, Yale University, Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania.
  • Cornell University – School of East Asian Studies
  • George Washington University —
  • University of California, Berkeley —
  • University of California, Los Angeles —
  • University of Chicago —
  • Columbia University —
  • Harvard University —
  • University of Hawaii —
  • Indiana University –
  • Indiana University Bloomington -
  • University of Michigan —
  • Ohio State University
  • University of Pennsylvania —
  • Tufts University, The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy —
  • University of Washington -
  • Yale University

    Canada

  • University of Toronto —
  • Munk School —
  • University of Alberta —
  • Camosun College —
  • University of Manitoba —

    Europe

Germany

  • Freie Universität Berlin — Institute of Korean Studies
  • Universität Hamburg —
  • Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen —
  • Ruhr University Bochum —
  • University of Duisburg-Essen —

    Russia

  • Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences – Department of Korean and Mongolian Studies
  • Far Eastern Federal University —
  • Novosibirsk State Technical University —

    United Kingdom

  • University of Leeds – , Leeds
  • University of London School of Oriental and African Studies —
  • University of Sheffield — School of East Asian Studies
  • University of Central Lancashire —

    France

*
  • Jean Moulin University Lyon 3 —

    Netherlands

  • Universiteit Leiden —

    Belgium

  • Katholieke Universiteit Leuven –
  • Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Institute for European Studies —

    Poland

  • University of Warsaw —
  • Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań —

    Spain

  • Universidad de Salamanca —
  • Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona —

    Oceania

Australia

  • Curtin University,
*
The term Koreanist generally indicates an academic scholar of Korean language, history, culture, society, music, art, literature, film, or any other subject who primarily publishes in a Western language. All such Koreanists are fluent in Korean and various other relevant research languages.
Koreanists who have published at least one Western-language academic book include:
  • Archeology: Gina Barnes, Mark E. Byington, Hyung Il Pai.
  • Cinema: Andrew David Jackson, Kyung Hyun Kim.
  • Early Koreanists: James Scarth Gale, William E. Skillend, Richard Rutt.
  • Fine arts: Burglind Jungmann, Maya K. H. Stiller.
  • Folklore, anthropology, and sociology: Hesung Chun Koh, Nancy Abelmann, Chungmoo Choi, Martina Deuchler, Stephen Epstein, Joanna Elfving-Hwang, Roger Janelli, Laurel Kendall, John Lie, Shimpei Cole Ota, Hyung Il Pai, Mutsuhiko Shima, Gi-Wook Shin.
  • History: Remco E. Breuker, Mark E. Byington, Mark E. Caprio, Yong-ho Ch'oe, Bruce Cumings, John B. Duncan, Carter J. Eckert, Kyung Moon Hwang, Andrew David Jackson, Hugh H. W. Kang, Anders Karlsson, Nan Kim, Kirk W. Larsen, Namhee Lee, James B. Lewis, Christopher Lovins, Yumi Moon, James B. Palais, N. M. Pankaj, Eugene Y. Park, Mark A. Peterson, Kenneth R. Robinson, Michael Robinson, Edward J. Shultz, Felix Siegmund, Vladimir Tikhonov, Edward W. Wagner.
  • International relations: Victor D. Cha, Stephan Haggard, David C. Kang, Sung-Yoon Lee.
  • International Law: Kwang Lim Koh
  • Language and literature: Yang Hi Choe-Wall, Kyeong-Hee Choi, Marion Eggert, Gregory N. Evon, Bruce Fulton, JaHyun Kim Haboush, Christopher Hanscom, Ross King, Peter H. Lee, David R. McCann, Michael J. Pettid, Marshall Pihl, Youngjoo Ryu, Serk-Bae Suh, Brother Anthony of Taize.
  • North Korea: Charles K. Armstrong, Suzy Kim, Andrei Lankov, Nina Špitálníková.
  • Performing arts: Keith Howard, Hwang Byungki, Lee Byongwon, Lee Duhyon, Lee Hye-ku, Roald Maliangkay, CedarBough T. Saeji.
  • Philosophy and religion: Juhn Y. Ahn, Don Baker, Robert Buswell Jr., Donald N. Clark, James H. Grayson, Michael Kalton, Andrew Eungi Kim, Daeyeol Kim, Hwansoo Ilmee Kim, Sujung Kim, N. M. Pankaj, Jin Y. Park, Franklin D. Rausch, Isabelle Sancho, Sem Vermeersch, Boudewijn Walraven.