Global Korea Project
The Global Korea Project is an interdisciplinary effort in the Morrissey College of Arts & Sciences to expand student engagement with the global dimensions of Korean history, politics, and culture.
The Project hosts cultural events, academic lectures, and visiting diplomats on campus while promoting an array of Korea-related programs and courses.
Launched in Fall 2023, it is led by Prof. Ingu Hwang.
Key activities:
- Distinguished Lecture Series
- Culture and Diversity Programming
- International Student Engagement
Global Korea’s Past and Future:
A Puzzle of Peculiarity vs. Generality
Prof. Myung-Lim Park, Yonsei University
Thursday, September 21, 5pm
Connolly House (300 Hammond Street), Andover Room
Myung-Lim Park is Director of the Kim Dae-jung Presidential Library, and a Professor at Yonsei University (Seoul, South Korea), where he teaches political theory, peace studies, constitutionalism, Korean Studies, and East Asian international relations in the Graduate School's Department of Area Studies. From 1995 to 2008 he co-organized and participated in fifteen inter-Korean conferences with North Korean scholars and officials. Park is the author of The Origins and Coming of the Korean War (1996); the Requiem for Peace: Korea, 1950 (2002); and Design for the Future Republic (2011).
The Legacy of the Chinese Entry during the Korean War:
The Misperception of the US during the Vietnam War
Tae-gyun Park, Seoul National University
Thursday, October 12, 2023, 5pm
Fulton 502
Tae-Gyun Park is a Professor of Korean Studies at the Graduate School of International Studies, Seoul National University. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Harvard-Yenching Institute (HYI) from 1997-1999, and a HYI Coordinate Research Scholar from 2007-2008. A frequent advisor to television documentary series on Korean history, he is the author of Ally and Empire: Two Myths in the Korea-U.S. Relationship; The Korean War: The Unfinished War, the War That Must End; and Regional Order in East Asia: From Empire to Community. He received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. in Korean History at Seoul National University.
“A Birth” (Directed by Heung Sik Park, 2022)
Movie Screening and Panel Discussion
Thursday, November 2, 2023, 5pm
Devlin Hall 008,
"A Birth" depicts the life of Kim Tae-gon (1821–1846, a.k.a. Andrew Kim), the first Korean-born Catholic priest whose missionary work and martyrdom led to his canonization as a saint in 1984. He is now celebrated as the patron saint of Korea. Kim was secretly baptised at age 15 and left the country (where Christianity was suppressed) to study at seminaries in Macau and the Philippines. After nine years he was ordained a priest in Shanghai by the French bishop Jean Joseph Jean-Baptiste Ferréol before returning to Korea, where he was executed two years later.
This event is held in collaboration with the BC Korean Student Association, the International Studies Program, and International Education Week.
“Minhwa” (Korean Folk Art) and Lunar New Year Celebration
Details to come.
February 2024
In collaboration with the BC Korean Student Association.
Sogang-BC Workshop
New scholarly collaboration planned for April 2024 among faculty and graduate students at BC and the Critical Global Studies Institute at Sogang University (a Jesuit university in Seoul).
Global Conversations
Via Zoom; Dates ongoing
Global Conversations is a student-led program at BC to host peer-to-peer video conversations between small groups of BC students and students from universities abroad. BC students have discussed a range of topics about Korea and East Asia with students from Sophia University and Sogong University.
- “Diversities in South Korea,” July 2023 with BC participants Rongwei Zhu, Neil Li, Boyu Jin, Sophia Sohn, and Megan Friday.
Korean Language Table and Speech Competition
- The Boston-area Korean Language Table is hosted by Prof. Seung Hee Jeon on the first Friday of every month.
- The New England Korean Speech Competition takes place each April, and it was hosted in 2023 at Boston College.
Collaborative COIL Course Sessions
Students at BC join classes at Sophia Univeristy in Tokyo and Sogang University in Seoul to discuss human rights, colonial legacies, and social justice.
- April 2023: “Colonial forced labor,” connecting with Prof. Wonkyung Rhee, Sophia University
Contentious History and the Politics of Contemporary Korea
Summer course taught by Prof. Ingu Hwang
Course number: INTL/HIST 2856
Approved for CC, GC-SM, and PEDS-PE/DS electives in the International Studies Program; and an electve in the History Department.
This introductory immersion course surveys the contentious intersection between history and politics in contemporary Korea on the topics of decolonization, division, development, and democratization. In addition to the class discussion, students will be guided to actively participate in the historical and cultural immersion/excursion programs, including the National Museum of Korean Contemporary History, the DMZ tour, and the Kim Dae-jung Presidential Library and Museum.
- June/July 2022 Ewha Women's University, Seoul
- June 25-July 22, 2023 Sogang University, Seoul
- June/July 2024 Sogang University, Seoul