Archived Events – Page 7 – GW Institute for Korean Studies

event banner with speaker headshots; text: Korea Policy Forum, South Korea’s Presidential Election & US-ROK Relations

12/7/2021 | Korea Policy Forum: South Korea’s Presidential Election & US-ROK Relations (Session 1)

November 22, 2021December 7, 2021Archived Events, Korea Policy ForumLeave a Comment

Korea Policy Forum

South Korea’s Presidential Election & US-ROK Relations

Tuesday, December 7, 2021

9:00 AM – 10:00 AM (EST)

11:00 PM – 12:00 AM (KST)

Zoom Event

Event Program (PDF)

South Koreans will soon go to the polls to elect their next president on March 9, 2022. The two leading candidates are former Gyeonggi Province Governor Lee Jae-myung from the ruling Democratic Party and former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl from the opposition People Power Party. As these two candidates hold divergent views on foreign policy, the results of this consequential election will surely have a major impact on US-ROK relations.

The GW Institute for Korean Studies has invited a prominent supporter of each major candidate to share their views on the race and their preferred candidate’s foreign policy goals. Joon Hyung Kim (former Chancellor of the Korea National Diplomatic Academy) and Beomchul Shin (Director of Diplomacy and Security Center at Korea Research Institute for National Strategy) will be presenting on the foreign policy of Lee Jae-myung and Yoon Seok-youl, respectively. Their presentations will be followed by comments from two expert discussants, Celeste Arrington (Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at GW) and Mark Tokola (Vice President of the Korea Economic Institute of America). We invite you to join us for an engaging discussion on the upcoming election and its implications for the future of US-ROK relations.

This event is on the record and open to the public.

Speaker

Beomchul Shin is the Director of the Diplomacy and Security Center at the Korea Research Institute for National Strategy (KRINS). Before joining the KRINS, he worked at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies. Until March 2018, he served at the Korea National Diplomatic Academy as tenured professor. He also served for the ROK Ministry of Foreign Affairs as the Director-General for Policy Planning from 2013 to 2016. Before joining the Ministry, he was the Head of the North Korean Military Studies Research Division at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses. Prior to that, he worked very closely with the Minister of National Defense of Korea as the Senior Policy Advisor in 2009 and 2010. He also has served in many advisory positions both at the National Security Council at the Office of the President and the National Assembly Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee. He is currently a member of the Board of Directors at the Korean Society of International Law as well. Dr. Shin is the author of several books on law and security, including North Korean Military: A Secret Report (2013) and International Law and the Use of Force (2008). He also has been publishing many articles on the Korea-U.S. alliance, North Korea, and Northeast Asian politics and security. He received his B.A. from Chungnam National University and did his graduate studies at at the School of Law at Seoul National University. He received his S.J.D. (Doctor of Judicial Science) from Georgetown University Law Center in 2007.

Discussants

portrait of Celeste Arrington posing with arms crossed in black outfit

Celeste Arrington is Korea Foundation Associate Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at GW. She specializes in comparative politics, with a regional focus on the Koreas and Japan. Her research and teaching focus on law and social movements, the media, lawyers, policy processes, historical justice, North Korean human rights, and qualitative methods. She is also interested in the international relations and security of Northeast Asia and transnational activism. She is the author of Accidental Activists: Victim Movements and Governmental Accountability in Japan and South Korea (2016) and has published in Comparative Political Studies, Law & Society Review, Journal of East Asian Studies, Pacific Affairs, Asian Survey, and the Washington Post, among others. She received a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, an MPhil from the University of Cambridge, and an A.B. from Princeton University. She is currently writing a book that analyzes the role of lawyers and legal activism in Japanese and Korean policies related to persons with disabilities and tobacco control.

portrait of Mark Tokola in professional attire

Mark Tokola is Vice President of the Korea Economic Institute of America in Washington, DC. He retired as a U.S. Senior Foreign Service Officer with the rank of Minister-Counselor in September 2014. His last posting was as the Minister Counselor for Political Affairs at US Embassy in London. Previously he had served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the American Embassies in Seoul, Republic of Korea; Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia; and, Reykjavik, Iceland. Among his other postings were two tours at the US Mission to the European Union in Brussels, Minister-Counselor for Economic Affairs at Embassy London, and Economic Counselor at the US Embassy in The Hague. He also served as Director of the Iraq Transition Assistance Office (ITAO) in Baghdad from 2007-2008. Mr. Tokola received the State Department’s Superior Honor Award for his work on implementing the Dayton Peace Accords while serving as Political Counselor in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina from 1997-1999. He holds a BA in International Relations from Pomona College in Claremont, California, and an LL.M. in European Community Law from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. Mr. Tokola serves on the Board of Governors of DACOR: An Organization of Foreign Affairs Professionals, and on the Board of Trustees of the Bacon House Foundation.

Moderator

portrait of Yonho Kim in professional attire

Yonho Kim is an Associate Research Professor of Practice and the Associate Director of GW Institute for Korean Studies. He specializes in North Korea’s mobile telecommunications and U.S. policy towards North Korea. Kim is the author of North Korean Phone Money: Airtime Transfers as a Precursor to Mobile Payment System (2020), North Korea’s Mobile Telecommunications and Private Transportation Services in the Kim Jong-un Era (2019) and Cell Phones in North Korea: Has North Korea Entered the Telecommunications Revolution? (2014). His research findings were covered by various media outlets, including Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Yonhap News, and Libération. Prior to joining GWIKS, he extensively interacted with the Washington policy circle on the Korean peninsula as Senior Researcher of the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, Senior Reporter for Voice of America’s Korean Service, and Assistant Director of the Atlantic Council’s Program on Korea in Transition. He holds a B.A. and M.A. in International Relations from Seoul National University, and an M.A. in International Relations and International Economics from Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

logos of the East Asia National Resource Center and GWIKS

event banner with stock images of civil wars in Asia; text: Cost and Consequences of War: Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan

11/18/2021 | The Costs and Consequences of War: Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan

November 5, 2021November 18, 2021Archived EventsLeave a Comment

Thursday, November 18, 2021

Session 1: 9:00 AM – 10:30 AM EST

Session 2: 10:30 AM – 12:00 PM EST

WebEx Event

The heartbreaking sight of terrified Afghans struggling to leave their country in the wake of the withdrawal of United States and NATO forces, inevitably brings to mind images from the end of the American war in Vietnam, and raises questions about the impact of other conflicts such as the war on the Korean Peninsula. Organized in two sessions, this conference prompts us to consider the geopolitical, human, environmental, and economic consequences of these wars on the people in the conflict zone, as well on the veterans and citizens of the United States. The first session convenes scholars whose perspectives are informed by rigorous study of extant documentation. The second panel comprises representatives of humanitarian organizations that have been working on the ground to mitigate the baneful consequences of war in the conflict areas as well as among former combatants.

Session 1 (9:00 AM – 10:30 AM EST): Geopolitical, Economic, and Social Consequences of War

Speakers:

Heidi Peltier, Assistant Research Professor, Department of Political Science and Project Director, Cost of War Project, Boston University
Ji-young Lee, Associate Professor of International Relations and C.W. Lim and KF Professor of Korean Studies, American University
Paul Morrow, Fellow, Vietnam Legacies Project, Human Rights Center, University of Dayton
Benjamin D. Hopkins, Professor of History and International Affairs, Sigur Center for Asian Studies, Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University

Moderator:

Christopher A. Kojm, Professor of International Affairs and Director, Leadership, Ethics and Practice Initiative, Elliott School of International Affairs

Session 2 (10:30 AM – 12:00 PM EST): On the Ground: Humanitarian Efforts to Heal the Wounds of War

Speakers:

Daniel Jasper, Public Education and Advocacy Coordinator, Asia, American Friends Service Committee
Susan Hammond, Executive Director and Founder, War Legacies Project
Heidi Kühn, Founder and CEO, Roots of Peace

Moderator:

Linda J. Yarr, Research Professor of International Affairs and Director, Partnerships for International Strategies in Asia (PISA), Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University

This conference will take place in two separate WebEx events, one for each session, with both held on Thursday, November 18th. If you would like to attend both sessions, please register through both of the above Eventbrite pages, as the WebEx links will be different for both. The webinar for Session 1 begins at 9:00 AM EST, and the webinar for Session 2 begins at 10:30 AM EST. Registered guests will receive an email with instructions for joining the webinar prior to the event. Registration closes for each session 24 hours before each WebEx event begins. Media inquiries must be sent to gwmedia@gwu.edu in advance. If you need specific accommodations, please contact gsigur@gwu.edu with at least 3 business days’ notice.

This event is free, open to the public, and will be recorded. Questions can be sent in advance to gsigur@gwu.edu with subject “Costs and Consequences of War Session 1” or “Costs and Consequences of War Session 2.”

Session 1 Speakers

Heidi Peltier is a Senior Researcher at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs and the Director of Programs for the Costs of War Project. She has been a contributing author to the Costs of War Project since its inception in 2010 and joined the staff in 2019. Peltier is an Economist who has written on military-related topics including the employment impacts of military and other public spending; military contracting, or what she calls the “Camo Economy;” and other areas at the intersection of militarism and public finance. She has also written widely on the employment impacts of a transition to a low-carbon economy, and is the author of the book, Creating a Clean-Energy Economy: How Investments in Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Can Create Jobs in a Sustainable Economy.

Ji-Young Lee is a political scientist who studies East Asian security at the intersection of history, area studies, and international relations. She is an Associate Professor of International Relations and the C. W. Lim and KF Professor of Korean Studies at American University’s School of International Service. She is the author of China’s Hegemony: Four Hundred Years of East Asian Domination (Columbia University Press, 2016). Her current book project, The Great Power Next Door (under contract with Columbia University Press), is a historically informed analysis of when and how China has chosen to militarily intervene in the Korean Peninsula. Previously, she taught at Oberlin College as a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Politics and East Asian Studies and was a POSCO Visiting Fellow at the East-West Center, a nonresident James Kelly Korean Studies Fellow with the Pacific Forum CSIS, and a Korea Foundation-Mansfield Foundation scholar of the U.S.-Korea Scholar-Policymaker Nexus program. Most recently, she served as the Korea Policy Chair and a senior political scientist at the RAND Corporation.

portrait of Melissa Newcomb in professional attire

Paul Morrow is a visiting assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Dayton, with a cross-appointment in the University’s Human Rights Center. His research focuses on legal and moral questions arising from war and mass violence. Earlier this year, Dr. Morrow and Human Rights Center Executive Director Shelley Inglis published a report titled Coming to Terms with Legacies of the Vietnam War. Applying a transitional justice lens, this report examines the legacies of America’s war in Vietnam and to assess what remains to be done.

Benjamin Hopkins, in professional attire against blue background

Benjamin D. Hopkins is Director of the Sigur Center for Asian Studies. Hopkins is a historian of modern South Asia, specializing in the history of Afghanistan and British imperialism on the Indian subcontinent. He has authored, co-authored, and co-edited numerous books on the region. Hopkins has received fellowships from the Council on Foreign Relations, the National University of Singapore, the School for Advanced Research in Santa Fe, and the Wilson Center in DC. Writing for the public, he has been featured in The New York Times, The National Interest, and the BBC. Hopkins holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge and BSc from the London School of Economics.

Session 1 Moderator

Christopher A. Kojm serves as the Director of the Elliott School’s Leadership, Ethics and Practice Initiative. He re-joined the School as a Professor of Practice in International Affairs after serving as Chairman of the National Intelligence Council from 2009 to 2014. He is also the Director of the US Foreign Policy Summer Program. He taught previously at Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs. In government, Chris served as a staffer on the House Foreign Affairs Committee from 1984-98 under Rep. Lee H. Hamilton, as a deputy assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research (1998-2003), and as deputy director of the 9/11 Commission (2003-04). He was also president of the 9/11 Public Discourse Project, the Commission’s follow-on public education organization (2004-05). He also served as a Senior Advisor to the Iraq Study Group (2006). He received a master’s degree in Public Affairs from Princeton.

Session 2 Speakers

Daniel Jasper is the Asia Public Education and Advocacy Coordinator for the American Friends Service Committee, where he has advocated for diplomacy, humanitarian cooperation, and peacebuilding with North Korea and China since 2015. He has assisted and taken part in humanitarian delegations to North Korea and regularly participates in Track II dialogues with Chinese foreign policy experts. He is a member of the National Committee on North Korea, an Advisory Board Member for the Coalition of Families of Korean and Cold War POW/MIAs, an International Advisor to the National Association of Korean Americans, as well as, the founder and primary author of StreetCivics.com. Previously, he worked at World Learning where he administered State Department exchange programs primarily with Iran. He has also worked for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Minnesota House of Representatives, and Congresswoman Betty McCollum. He holds a Master’s in public policy from Duke University and a Bachelor’s in global studies, cultural studies, and linguistics from the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities.

Susan Hammond, the daughter of a U.S. Vietnam veteran, became interested in post-war Southeast Asia after traveling to Viet Nam, and Cambodia in 1991. In 1996, after earning her MA in International Education from NYU, Susan returned to Viet Nam to study Vietnamese. She became involved in fostering mutual understanding between the people of the U.S. and Viet Nam, Laos and Cambodia and addressing the long-term impacts of war while working as the Deputy Director of the Fund for Reconciliation and Development from 1996 to 2007. During this time she lived in New, York, Viet Nam, Cambodia and Laos coordinating programs for FRD. In 2007, Susan returned to her home state of Vermont and founded War Legacies Project which focused on addressing the long-term health and environmental impacts of war including the on-going impacts of Agent Orange in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. In 2019, Susan received the Vietnam Order of Friendship medal for her more than two decades of work in Viet Nam.

Heidi Kuhn is Founder and CEO of Roots of Peace, a humanitarian non-profit organization founded in September 1997 with a vision to transform MINES TO VINES–replacing the scourge of landmines with sustainable agricultural farmland. Her pioneering work empowers families living in war-torn regions with hope leading to the economics of peace through export and trade. She attended the University of California, Berkeley majoring in Political Economics, where those core beliefs were strengthened during the peace movement of the 1970’s, setting forth a lifelong commitment to pioneering the footsteps of peace. Heidi and Roots of Peace have been the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2006 Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship, the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Award/National Jefferson Award for Public Service, and the Rotary International “Service Above Self” Award. In 2018, she received the inaugural Earth Ethics Award from Marcus Nobel, nephew of Alfred Nobel, presented to her at the United Nations in New York. And, in 2019, Heidi received the Gandhi Global Family Award in New Delhi, the first American to receive this prestigious award on the 150th Birthday of Mahatma Gandhi.

Session 2 Moderator

Linda J. Yarr is Research Professor of International Affairs at the Elliott School of International Affairs and Director of George Washington University’s Partnerships for International Strategies in Asia (PISA). PISA collaborates with organizations, universities and government agencies in Asia to address emerging issues such as climate change and conflict prevention, as well as to engage in joint research projects and training programs. Ms. Yarr has authored book chapters and articles on Vietnam, international affairs, and gender studies. She was a visiting scholar at the National University of Malaysia, American University, the Rocky Mountain Women’s Institute, and the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies. Previously, she taught global political economy at Long Island University and courses in political science and development studies at the University of Denver and the University of Colorado, Boulder. Ms. Yarr earned an international relations degree at the Institut d’Études Politiques in Paris, and an M.A. in Government and Southeast Asia studies at Cornell University.

11/18/2021 | Hoping to Build Legal Stepping Stones over the River of Global Politics

November 5, 2021December 10, 2021Archived Events, Korea Policy ForumLeave a Comment

Legislating the Relationship Between South and North Korea, a Road for Peace on the Korean Peninsula

Thursday, November 18, 2021
4:00 PM – 5:00 PM EST

Zoom Event

**THIS IS A HYBRID EVENT. There will be FORTY-FIVE (45) first come, first serve in-person tickets for attendance at the George Washington University’s Elliott School for International Affairs. IN-PERSON TICKETS ARE RESERVED FOR GW STUDENTS, FACULTY, AND STAFF. For outside affiliations, there will be tickets available to attend virtually via Zoom.**

**Minister Park will be giving his remarks in Korean. Consecutive interpretation from Korean to English will be provided during both the speech and the Q&A session**

Event Program (PDF)

About the Event

Reunification can be understood as an issue of national diplomacy, security or defense. Nevertheless, the course of promoting peace and achieving reunification between the two Koreas, in fact, falls into the legal scope. As seen from the reunification of East and West Germany, the beginning and completion of the discussion on the reunification of a divided nation depends on the construction of laws and systems. The Minister of Justice, who heads the ministry that develops legal systems and is responsible to render and design a legal blueprint for the reunification of the Korean Peninsula, will discuss the beginning of a new era where military confrontation is replaced by legal systems.

Speaker

Justice Minister Park Beom Kye was appointed as the 68th Minister of Justice of the Republic of Korea in January 2021. With over 30 years of experience in the legal field as a judge and attorney at law, Minister Park is also a third term member of the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea. He has been representing Seo District of the city of Daejeon since 2012. As a National Assembly member, Minister Park served in the Legislation and Judiciary Committee for a long period and worked as the Secretary of the Special Committee on Judicial Reform in 2018. He was also the Chief Spokesperson of the Democratic Party. Minister Park served as a member for both the Special Committee on the Investigation of the Illegal Online Meddling in Election Campaigns by the National Intelligence Service (2013) and the Special Committee on the Investigation of the Influence-Peddling Scandal involving President Park Geun Hye’s confidant Choi Soon Sil (2016~2017). Minister Park worked as the Subcommittee Chairman on Political Administration under the National Planning and Advisory Committee, a presidential transition committee, set up by President Moon Jae In in 2017. He was the Secretary to the President for both Civil Affairs II and Legal Affairs during the Roh Moo Hyun administration. Minister Park is married with two sons.

Moderator

Alyssa Ayres is Dean of the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University. Ayres is a foreign policy practitioner and award-winning author with senior experience in the government, nonprofit, and private sectors. From 2013 to 2021, she was senior fellow for India, Pakistan, and South Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), where she remains an adjunct senior fellow. Her work focuses primarily on India’s role in the world and on U.S. relations with South Asia in the larger Indo-Pacific. Her book about India’s rise on the world stage, Our Time Has Come: How India is Making Its Place in the World, was published in 2018. Ayres is also interested in the emergence of subnational engagement in foreign policy, particularly the growth of international city networks, and her current book project (working title, Bright Lights, Biggest Cities: The Urban Challenge to India’s Future, under contract with Oxford University Press) examines India’s urban transformation and its international implications. From 2010 to 2013, Ayres served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia. She received an AB from Harvard College and an MA and PhD from the University of Chicago.

logos of the GW Institute for Korean Studies and East Asia National Resource Center

11/17/2021 | Premodern Korea Lecture Series with Kang Hahn Lee

November 3, 2021May 16, 2022Archived Events, Premodern Korea Lecture SeriesLeave a Comment

“A Unique Relationship: Koryŏ and the Mongol Yuan Empire”

Wednesday, November 17, 2021 | 7:00 p.m. – 8:30p.m. (EDT)
Thursday, November 18, 2021 | 9:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. (KST)

Zoom Event

Event Program (PDF)

About the Event

The relationship that Koryŏ had with the Mongol Yuan empire was different from any prior relationships that Koryŏ had established with other China-based dynasties. The Koryŏ-Mongol relationship lasted for nearly two hundred years (1218-1392), and the dynamic between the two entities (Koryŏ and Yuan) shifted fundamentally as time progressed in the 13th and 14th centuries. A phase of military domination, political intervention, and economic pillaging later turned into an era filled with commodity trades, political interaction, and exchanges of thoughts and institutions, leading (and sometimes forcing) the Koryŏ people to come up with new ideas and perspectives to view the empire, the world, and most importantly themselves.

Speaker

Kang Hahn Lee (Ph.D. Seoul National University, 2007) is a Professor in the Korean History Department at the Academy of Korean Studies (Sŏngnam, Korea). He studies and teaches the history of the Koryŏ dynasty (918-1392), and its relationship with the Mongols (Yuan Empire). He is the author of Koryŏwa Wŏncheguk’ŭi Kyoyŏk’ŭi Yŏksa [Trade between Koryŏ and Yuan] (2013) and Koryŏ’ŭi Chagi, Yuan Chegukgwa mannada [Koryŏ Porcelain in contact with the Mongol Yuan Empire] (2016). Currently he also serves as the Chief Editor for The Review of Korean Studies, an English journal published by AKS.

Moderator

portrait of Jisoo Kim in professional attire

Jisoo M. Kim is Korea Foundation Associate Professor of History, International Affairs, and East Asian Languages and Literatures. She currently serves as the Director of the Institute for Korean Studies and the Co-Director of the East Asia National Resource Center at GW. She also serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Korean Studies. She is a specialist in gender, law, and emotions in Korean history. Her broader research interests include gender and sexuality, crime and justice, forensic medicine, literary representations of the law, history of emotions, vernacular, and gender writing. She is the author of The Emotions of Justice: Gender, Status, and Legal Performance in Chosŏn Korea (University of Washington Press, 2015), which was awarded the 2017 James Palais Prize of the Association for Asian Studies. She is also the co-editor of The Great East Asian War and the Birth of the Korean Nation by JaHyun Kim Haboush (Columbia University Press, 2016). She is currently working on a book project tentatively entitled Sexual Desire, Crime, and Gendered Subjects: A History of Adultery Law in Korea. She received her M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. in East Asian Languages and Cultures from Columbia University.

9/24/2021 | Book Manuscript Workshop with Dr. Stephanie Kim

October 27, 2021October 27, 2021Archived EventsLeave a Comment

Friday, September 24, 2021

Learn More About the Book Manuscript Workshop

Speaker

portrait of Stephanie Kim in professional attire

Dr. Stephanie K. Kim brings over a decade of experience as a scholar and educator in the field of comparative and international higher education. At Georgetown University, she is Assistant Professor of the Practice in the School of Continuing Studies and is the inaugural Faculty Director of the Master’s in Higher Education Administration.

She researches and writes about internationalization reforms, student mobility, and comparative higher education policy. Her work appears in a number of journals, edited volumes, and media outlets. She is currently writing a book about higher education reform and international student mobility in the post-recession era.

Additionally, she serves the Journal of International Students as Associate Editor. She is also a former Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) U.S.-Korea NextGen Scholar and Fulbright Fellow to South Korea.

Prior to arriving at Georgetown, she held academic and administrative positions at UC Berkeley and received her Ph.D. in Education from UCLA.

Commentators

Jiyeon Kang is Associate Professor of Communication Studies at the University of Iowa. Her academic interests include online activism, youth culture, vernacular rhetoric, and globalization.

Her research focuses on conceptualizing the democratic potential of the Internet, with a specific interest in the communicative dynamics and cultural norms that have emerged in the contexts of youth-driven social movements and online communities. Her forthcoming book Igniting the Internet: Youth and Activism in Postauthoritarian South Korea examines a decade of Internet activism in South Korea by combining rhetorical analysis of online communities with ethnographic interviews. The book attends to the political significance of the Internet as not only an extension of existing politics but also a new social space in which the circulation of multisensory texts invites users to act upon their previously unarticulated yet shared desires and grievances. It also draws attention to long-term changes in political sensibilities even after the period of activism has passed. She has additionally published articles on vernacular discourse on the web, collective agency, unintended political effects, and memories of Internet-born activism.

Kang’s upcoming projects explore “new civilities” on the Internet, referring not simply to politeness but to the transforming social and ethical norms of coexistence. Her article-length project examines how a marginalized group maintains its distinct style in the digital environment, resisting attempts to dismiss it as emotional, rude, or disrespectful. She is concurrently working on a collaborative book-length project with Nancy Abelmann and Xia Zhang on the novel and varied civilities at play in the online communities of international undergraduate students in the U.S., China, and South Korea.

Yingyi Ma is an Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of Asian/Asian American Studies at Syracuse University. She is the Provost Faculty Fellow on internationalization at Syracuse University, where she leads and supports culturally responsive pedagogy and programs for international education and partnership. She received her Ph.D. in sociology from Johns Hopkins University in 2007.

Ma’s research addresses education and migration in the U.S. and China and she has published about thirty peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, in addition to one monograph and one co-edited book. Several projects use quantitative methods and examine fields of study often neglected in the context of education stratification, particularly how those fields provide a mobility strategy for racial minorities, the children of immigrants, and their families in the U.S. This line of research has received grants from the National Science Foundation, Alfred Sloan Foundation, and Association of Institutional Research.

Ma’s research on international education uses mixed methods including surveys and in-depth interviews. Her monograph, Ambitious and Anxious: How Chinese College Students Succeed and Struggle in American Higher Education, was published by Columbia University Press in February 2020. This book has won Best Book awards from multiple sections of the Comparative and International Education Association and the Bourdieu Best Book Award Honorable Mention from the American Sociological Association. It has been featured in national and international news media, such as The Washington Post and Times Higher Education. She is the co-editor of Understanding International Students from Asia in American Universities: Learning and Living Globalization (2017), which has won the honorable mention of the Best Book Award from the Comparative and International Education Association’s Study Abroad and International Students Section.

Chris R. Glass, PhD is a Professor of the Practice in the Department of Educational Leadership and Higher Education at Boston College. His research and writing focus on issues of equity, sustainability, and belonging in global student mobility. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of International Students, the Co-Editor of the Routledge Studies in Global Student Mobility book series, and Vice President for Research and Public Policy at the Society of Transnational Academic Researchers (STAR). He co-authored the recent monograph by the American Council on Education (ACE) titled, Toward Greater Inclusion and Success: A New Compact for International Students and was the
recipient of the NAFSA Innovative Research in International Education Award. He has a deep commitment to the transformative power of international education, developed through years of leading study abroad programs and strengthened by personal connections with international students and scholars around the world. His research has been published in the International Journal of Educational Development, Studies in Higher Education, Higher Education Research & Development, Compare, International Journal of Intercultural Relations, and the Journal of Studies in International
Education. Glass earned his PhD in Higher, Adult, and Lifelong Education at Michigan State University (2012). You can learn more about his research and scholarship on his website at chrisrglass.com and/or by following him on Twitter at @crglass.

10/27/2021 | Soh Jaipil Lecture Series: Seeds of Control with David Fedman

October 19, 2021November 22, 2021Archived Events, Soh Jaipil Lecture SeriesLeave a Comment

“Seeds of Control: Toward a Timberline View of Japanese Colonial Rule in Korea”

Wednesday, October 27, 2021

4:00 PM – 5:30 PM EDT

Zoom Event

See Event Program (PDF)

This talk will introduce the core arguments and interventions that animate Seeds of Control, one of the first English-language studies of the environmental impacts and legacies of Japan’s colonial occupation of Korea. By outlining some of the central themes of the book, the author hopes to stimulate a broader conversation about green governmentality and colonial power, as well as the growth of Korean environmental history as a field.

Registered guests will receive a following confirmation email with details for joining the Zoom event.

This event is on the record and open to the public.

Speaker

portrait of David Fedman in striped shirt

David Fedman is Associate Professor of History at the University of California, Irvine. He is the author of Seeds of Control: Japan’s Empire of Forestry in Colonial Korea (University of Washington Press, 2020), which received the AHA Pacific Coast Branch Book Award, and co-editor of Forces of Nature: New Approaches to Korean Environments (Cornell University Press, forthcoming 2022). His other publications include The Ondol Problem and the Politics of Forest Conservation in Colonial Korea (Journal of Korean Studies, Vol. 23, 2018), an energy history of Japanese settler colonialism in Korea.

Moderator

Jisoo M. Kim is Korea Foundation Associate Professor of History, International Affairs, and East Asian Languages and Literatures. She currently serves as the Director of the Institute for Korean Studies and the Co-Director of the East Asia National Resource Center at GW. She also serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Korean Studies. She is a specialist in gender, law, and emotions in Korean history. Her broader research interests include gender and sexuality, crime and justice, forensic medicine, literary representations of the law, history of emotions, vernacular, and gender writing. She is the author of The Emotions of Justice: Gender, Status, and Legal Performance in Chosŏn Korea (University of Washington Press, 2015), which was awarded the 2017 James Palais Prize of the Association for Asian Studies. She is also the co-editor of The Great East Asian War and the Birth of the Korean Nation by JaHyun Kim Haboush (Columbia University Press, 2016). She is currently working on a book project tentatively entitled Sexual Desire, Crime, and Gendered Subjects: A History of Adultery Law in Korea. She received her M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. in East Asian Languages and Cultures from Columbia University.

event banner with speaker headshots; text: The Untold Story of the Korean Film Industry

10/22/2021 | The Untold Story of the Korean Film Industry

October 15, 2021November 8, 2021Archived EventsLeave a Comment

Friday, October 22, 2021

4:00 PM – 5:30 PM EDT

Zoom Event

Event Program (PDF)

Korea’s cultural industries are among the most dynamic in the world, and the film industry is no exception. While many people are aware of Korea’s success in international music charts or at international film festivals, very few realize that these results rely on industrial success that reflect systematic business efforts and a prudent film policy. Such an approach differs markedly from the protectionist film policies adopted by many countries, particularly in Europe.

The first presentation for this seminar will compare the Korean film industry and the industries of five critical countries – China, France, Japan, the UK, and the US. In presenting both robust and meaningful results, this comparison covers a long period – from 1980 to 2018. It shows that the Korean industry has first caught up, then outperformed its European counterparts in almost every dimension: more films produced, larger box office revenues, larger national audience for both US and domestic films, and less interventionist regulations. Last but not least, Korean films demonstrate better quality as expressed by both audiences’ and critics’ perspective.

The second part will present the unique balance between dynamic, risk-taking business strategies, and public policy in Korea. In particular, it will examine the effects of the elimination of protectionist measures such as import and screen quotas, and the limited use of subsidies. All these aspects are in sharp contrast with European countries. This presentation will conclude by raising key issues for discussion with the audience related to digitization and globalization.

This event is on the record and open to the public.

Speakers

Jimmyn Parc is a Visiting Lecturer at Sciences Po, France and a Research Associate at the Institute of Communication Research, Seoul National University in Korea. His research projects are related to the competitiveness of organizations, industries, and countries. His current research focuses on the cultural industries that are faced with a changing business and trade environment as well as new challenges from digitization.

Patrick Messerlin is Professor Emeritus of Economics at Sciences Po Paris, and Chairman, Steering Committee of the European Centre for International Political Economy (ECIPE), Brussels. His current research deals with economic and trade relations between Europe and East Asia, with a particular focus on cultural industries.

Moderator

Immanuel Kim is Korea Foundation and Kim-Renaud Associate Professor of Korean Literature and Culture Studies. Prior to working at the George Washington University, he was Assistant Professor in the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies at Binghamton University (SUNY). Dr. Kim received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Riverside. His research is on North Korean literature and film, and he has translated a North Korean novel called Friend by Paek Nam-nyong (Columbia University Press, 2020).

10/30/2021 | The 29th Annual Hahn Moo-Sook Colloquium in the Korean Humanities

October 14, 2021November 19, 2021Archived Events, Hahn Moo-sook Colloquium in the Korean HumanitiesLeave a Comment

Presented by the George Washington University’s Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures and Institute for Korean Studies.

The Global Enterprise of Translation:

Translators, Institution, and Market For Korean Literature

Saturday, October 30, 2021

9:00 AM – 12:00 AM EDT | 10:00 PM – 1:00 AM KST

Zoom Event

See the Event Program (PDF)

This year’s colloquium focuses on the translators who have impacted and broadened the scope of Korean literature. What began as an academic enterprise for pedagogical purposes, Korean literature in translation is now a global enterprise reaching audiences beyond the classroom from across the world. In addition to the South Korean government’s establishment of the Literature Translation Institute of Korea (LTI Korea), publishers, literary agencies, and translators themselves from all over the world have developed their own methods of marketing Korean fiction. However, the growth of global awareness of Korean literature has also reinforced hierarchies and inequities in the literary field in South Korea and abroad, ignoring the diversity and inclusivity of literary production within the country. This year’s colloquium will address these problems and hear from translators and scholars on ways to improve the global enterprise of translating Korean literature.

Registered guests will receive a confirmation email with details for joining the Zoom event.

This event is on the record and open to the public.

The Hahn Moo-Sook Colloquium

The Hahn Moo-Sook Colloquium in the Korean Humanities Series at the George Washington University provides a forum for academic discussion of Korean arts, history, language, literature, thought and religious systems in the context of East Asia and the world. The colloquium series is made possible by an endowment established by the estate of Hahn Moo-Sook (1918-1993), one of Korea’s most honored writers, to uphold her spirit of openness, curiosity, and commitment to education.

The 29th Hahn Moo-Sook Colloquium is organized by the George Washington University’s Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures, co-organized by the GW Institute for Korean Studies and co-sponsored by the Korea Foundation.

Honorable Guests

Jisoo M. Kim is Korea Foundation Associate Professor of History, International Affairs, and East Asian Languages and Literatures and Director of the Institute for Korean Studies at GW. She also currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Korean Studies. She is a specialist in gender, law, and emotions in Korean history. Her broader research interests include gender and sexuality, crime and justice, forensic medicine, literary representations of the law, history of emotions, vernacular, and gender writing. She is the author of The Emotions of Justice: Gender, Status, and Legal Performance in Chosŏn Korea (University of Washington Press, 2015), which was awarded the 2017 James Palais Prize of the Association for Asian Studies. She is also the co-editor of The Great East Asian War and the Birth of the Korean Nation by JaHyun Kim Haboush (Columbia University Press, 2016). She is currently working on a book project tentatively entitled Sexual Desire, Crime, and Gendered Subjects: A History of Adultery Law in Korea. She received her M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. in East Asian Languages and Cultures from Columbia University.

portrait of Kwak Hyo-hwan in casual attire

Kwak Hyo Hwan is the current President of the Literature Translation Institute of Korea. He has a doctoral degree from Korea University‘s Department of Korean Language and Literature. Since 2017, he has been part of the Literary Promotion Policy Committee, which was created under the Culture Ministry to consult on creating policy related to the local literary industry. He has also been the director of the Society of Korean Poets since 2012.

portrait of Young-Key Kim-Renaud in professional attire

Young-Key Kim-Renaud is Professor Emeritus of Korean Language and Culture and International Affairs, previous chair of the East Asian Languages and Literatures Department at GW. She is also currently Senior Advisor to GW Institute for Korean Studies. She is the founder of the annual Hahn Moo-Sook Colloquium at GW. Previously, she served as Assistant Program Director for Linguistics at the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). Dr. Kim-Renaud is one of the pioneers in Korean language education, research, and outreach activities in the United States, having begun to teach Korean at Berkeley as a graduate student in early 1964. Since then, she has published 13 books, numerous refereed articles, and invited book chapters on Korean linguistics, Korean literature, the Korean writing system, language and society, language and politics, cross-cultural communications, Korean women in the humanities, Korean cultural history, and current affairs. Dr. Kim-Renaud has received various awards and grants in recognition for her contributions, including a Republic of Korea Jade Order of Cultural Merit in 2006 and the Bichumi Grand Award from Samsung Life Foundation as a Woman of the Year 2008 for Public Service

Speakers

Anton Hur is a literary translator based in Seoul. He is a graduate of the Korea University College of Law and Seoul National University Graduate School and was awarded the title of Person of Distinguished Service to the State in 2002 after serving in the Korean army. His translations include Sang Young Park’s LOVE IN THE BIG CITY (Grove Atlantic), Bora Chung’s CURSED BUNNY (Honford Star), and Ocean Vuong’s NIGHT SKY WITH EXIT WOUNDS (Moonji).

Bruce Fulton is the inaugural occupant of the Young-Bin Min Chair in Korean Literature and Literary Translation, Department of Asian Studies, University of British Columbia. He is the co-translator, with Ju-Chan Fulton, of numerous works of modern Korean fiction; general editor of the Modern Korean Fiction series published by the University of Hawai’i Press; co-author with Youngmin Kwon of What Is Korean Literature? (2020); recipient of a 2018 Manhae Grand Prize in Literature; and editor of the forthcoming Penguin Book of Korean Short Stories (2022). He is the co-recipient, with Ju-Chan Fulton, of several translation awards and grants, including the first National Endowment for the Arts Translation Fellowship for a Korean literary work, and the first residency awarded by the Banff (Canada) International Literary Translation Centre for the translation of a work from any Asian Language. His most recent translations, with Ju-Chan Fulton, are the novels Mina by Kim Sagwa (Two Lines Press, 2018), The Catcher in the Loft by Ch’ŏn Un-yŏng (Codhill Press, 2019), and One Left by Kim Soom (University of Washington Press, 2020).

Jamie Chang is a lecturer at the Graduate School of Translation and Interpretation at Ewha Womans University and the Translation Academy at Literature Translation Institute Korea. She has translated The Great Soul of Siberia by Sooyong Park and Kim Ji-young, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-joo.

Jenny Wang Medina is Assistant Professor of Korean Studies in the Department of Russian and East Asian Languages and Cultures at Emory University. Her research focuses on questions of national/global cultures, diaspora, multiculturalism, canon formation, and translation. She is currently writing a book manuscript titled Becoming K-orean: South Korea’s Quest for Cultural Distinction. The book examines South Korea’s transformation of Korean culture from a preservationist tradition to a dynamic cosmopolitan culture at the turn of the 21st century through literature, film, and television.

Sophie Bowman is a PhD student in the East Asian Studies department at the University of Toronto. Her translations include Kim Bo-Young’s “I’m Waiting for You” and “On My Way to You” in I’m Waiting for You and Other Stories, Djuna’s “The Second Nanny” published in Clarkesworld, Baek Heena’s picture book Magic Candies, and Looking Back Life Was Beautiful by Grandpa Chan and Grandma Marina.

Sora Kim-Russell is a literary translator based in Seoul. Her recent publications include Pyun Hye-young’s The Law of Lines, Hwang Sok-yong’s At Dusk, and Kim Un-su’s The Plotters. She has taught literary translation at the Bread Loaf Translators’ Conference, LTI Korea, and Ewha Womans University.

Moderator

blue event banner; text: Conventional Deterrence of North Korea and U.S.-ROK Alliance

10/19/2021 | 2021 Seoul-Washington Forum: Conventional Deterrence of North Korea and U.S.-ROK Alliance

October 13, 2021October 21, 2021Archived EventsLeave a Comment

Tuesday, October 19, 2021 | 7:00 – 8:30 pm (EDT)

Wednesday, October 20, 2021 | 8:00 – 9:30 am (KST)

Zoom Event

Event Program (PDF)

The U.S.-ROK alliance has long served as the backbone of South Korea’s defense strategy in response to threats from North Korea. Despite this long-standing alliance, North Korea’s growing nuclear and missile capabilities pose major concerns for the defense of South Korea and the stability of the Korean Peninsula as a whole. Given North Korea’s recent technological advances, some have called for South Korea and the U.S. to reconsider their overall conventional defense strategy. Are traditional conventional deterrence strategies still effective against North Korea or is it time for the alliance to adapt in the face of new threats? During this virtual meeting of the Sejong Institute’s 2021 Seoul-Washington Forum, co-hosted by the GW Institute for Korean Studies, panelists will examine strategies for conventional deterrence of North Korea and discuss the evolving defense outlook on the Korean Peninsula.

Welcoming Remarks:

Jisoo M. Kim, Director, GW Institute for Korean Studies
Sang Hyun Lee, President, Sejong Institute

US Panelist:

Sharon Squassoni, Research Professor, The George Washington University
Frank Aum, Senior Expert, United States Institute of Peace
Jon Wolfsthal, Senior Advisor, Global Zero

ROK Panelist:

Jungsup Kim, Vice President, The Sejong Institute
Hyeong Wook Boo, Senior Research Fellow, Korea Institute for Defense Analyses
Beomchul Shin, Director, Center for Diplomacy and Defense, Research Institute for Economy and Society

Moderator: Yonho Kim, Associate Director of GW Institute for Korean Studies

10/21/2021 | The Start of a Bold Journey for Peace Settlement of the Korean Peninsula

October 11, 2021November 8, 2021Archived Events1 Comment

Thursday, October 21, 2021

4:00 PM – 5:30 PM EDT

Hybrid Event

Event Program (PDF)

students waiting for speak to Na Kyung Won at her lecture event

audience asking question to Na Kyung Won during Q&A session

audience listening to Na Kyung Won speak during her lecture event

Na Kyung Won and event moderator sitting at the front of the room

Jisoo Kim speaking at a podium at an event

student asking question to Na Kyung Won during Q&A at her lecture event

Na Kyung Won addressing audience at the podium

group photo of GWIKS staff and Na Kyung Won

group photo of GWIKS faculty leadership and Na Kyung Won

group photo of Na Kyung Won, Jisoo Kim, and Alyssa Ayres

event banner for Na Kyung Won's lecture event projected on a TV screen

GWIKS is proud to invite Na Kyung Won to present her talk on “The Start of a Bold Journey for Peace Settlement of the Korean Peninsula”.

In his speech at the U.N. General Assembly last month, South Korean President Moon Jae-in repeated a call for the end-of-war declaration on the Korean Peninsula. Under what conditions can an end-of-war declaration contribute to a peace settlement of the Korean peninsula? This lecture will discuss the conditions for a bold journey to a genuine peace settlement of the Korean peninsula under the Biden administration and how to relate those conditions to the international order in Northeast Asia and Asia as a whole. In addition, the honorable speaker will discuss the role of female leadership in South Korea on the issue of foreign affairs.

**An interpretation service was provided during the Q&A portion.**

This event is on the record and open to the public. Your photo or video may be taken during the event for education or promotional purposes. Your visit grants permission for our use of these photos and videos.

Speaker

portrait of Na Kyung-won in professional attire

The Honorable Na Kyung Won was a 4-term Member of the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea. She served as a Member of the National Assembly from 2004 to 2011 (17th, 18th) and from 2014 to 2020 (19th, 20th). Hon. Na Kyung Won has shattered numerous glass ceilings throughout her political career. She was the only female to head the congressional leadership of a major conservative party. As the Floor Leader of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party from 2018 to 2019, she played a crucial role in shaping the political environment. In addition, as the head of the Korea Women Parliamentarian Network (KWPN, a voluntary alliance of current and former female members of the National Assembly) from 2015 to 2020, she developed numerous programs with the aim to provide ample opportunities to upcoming female politicians. Currently, she serves as a senior advisor of KWPN. She was also the first female Chairperson of the Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee of the National Assembly. As the Chairperson, she persuaded fellow legislators to pass the landmark North Korean Human Rights Act in 2016. As the Vice Chairperson of the Korea U.S. Inter-Parliamentary Council and the Vice Chairperson of the Korea-Japan Parliamentarians’ Union, she strengthened the ROK-U.S.-Japan trilateral cooperation. At the forefront of the conservative movement, she was the spokesperson and a member of the Supreme Council of the then-ruling Grand National Party (predecessor of the United Future Party). She was the ruling party’s nominee for the 2011 Seoul mayoral election. Furthermore, she was voted as the most respected politician by the millennial generation in 2016. Hon. Na Kyung Won has always been active in promoting the rights of disabled people. She was a Member of the Board of Directors of Special Olympics International, and a former Governing Board Member of the International Paralympic Committee. Also, as the Chair of the Organizing Committee, she led the successful and profitable 2013 Special Olympics World Winter Games in Pyeongchang. Hon. Na Kyung Won received her LL.B. (1986) and LL.M. (1989) from Seoul National University. After passing the National Judicial Examination in 1992, she served as a Judge in various courts.