Tuesday, Apr 21, 2015 – Asian Women in Leadership: A conversation with Florence Lowe-Lee and Jaehyang So

The U.S.-Korea Institute at SAIS and the Sejong Society of Washington, D.C.present:

 Dr. Katharine H.S. Moon

SK-Korea Foundation Chair in Korea Studies and Senior Fellow,
Center for East Asia Policy Studies, The Brookings Institution

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

6:00-8:00pm
*Light dinner provided

Room 500, Bernstein-Offit Building (BOB)
Johns Hopkins SAIS
1717 Massachusetts Ave NW
Washington, D.C., 20036

South Korean society today is experiencing an unprecedented demographic change as foreign residents now make up more than three percent of the current population and are projected to reach 10% by 2030. Hundreds of thousands of naturalized Korean citizens originating from China, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, and Eastern Europe and the over 200,000 “multicultural children” of half Korean parentage are new additions to the traditionally homogeneous ethnonational society.  The presence and increase of multi-ethnic Koreans and long-term foreign residents prompt serious questions and transformations for South Korea’s domestic politics and foreign policy.

On April 14, Dr. Katharine H.S. Moon, SK-Korea Foundation Chair in Korea Studies and Senior Fellow in the Center for East Asia Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution, will discuss her recent research on the evolving demographics of South Korea and what this shift toward a multicultural society means for South Korea’s democracy.

Light dinner will be available during reception starting at 6:00pm. Event will commence at 6:30pm.

Please RSVP here. 

 Dr. Katharine (Kathy) H.S. Moon is the inaugural holder of the SK-Korea Foundation Chair in Korea Studies and Senior Fellow in the Center for East Asia Policy Studies at The Brookings Institution. She also is a professor of Political Science and Wasserman Chair of Asian Studies at Wellesley College. She received her B.A., magna cum laude, from Smith College and a Ph.D. from Princeton University, Department of Politics. She was born in San Francisco.  Kathy Moon’s analytical approach is to bridge domestic politics and foreign policy.  She is currently working on a book that analyzes the impact of demographic change (including defectors and immigrants) in South Korea on Korean democracy and foreign policy. She is the author of Protesting America: Democracy and the U.S.-Korea Alliance (2013), Sex Among Allies: Military Prostitution in U.S.-Korea Relations (1997 & 2002), and numerous articles on the Koreas, U.S.-East Asia relations, and women/gender in international relations.  Moon’s op-eds and media interviews have been circulated worldwide. For details, see http://www.brookings.edu/experts/moonk

Tuesday, Apr 14, 2015 – South Korea’s Demographic Shift: Political and Social Implications

Featuring:

Shu-Hua Kang | Executive Director, Taipei Women’s Rescue Foundation

Mina Watanabe | Secretary General, Women’s Active Museum on War and Peace

 Bonnie Oh| (Moderating) Distinguished Prof of Korean Studies (Retired),
Georgetown University
 

Thursday, March 12
10:00AM – 12:00 PM
Rome Auditorium
1619 Massachusetts Ave NW
Washington, DC 20036

 Please join the U.S.-Korea Institute at SAIS and Asia Policy Point in commemorating International Women’s Day this month with a discussion by two spokeswomen for the survivors of sexual slavery.  Ms. Mina Watanabe and Ms. Shu-Hua Kang have devoted their careers to the care of and advocacy for victims of sexual violence and trafficking in Asia, and will be in Washington after presenting at the 59th session of the Commission on the Status of Women at the United Nations in New York.

Shu-Hua KANG is Executive Director of the Taipei Women’s Rescue Foundation (TWRF). TWRF was established in 1987 by a group of lawyers, scholars, and social workers to fight on the behalf of girls illegally forced into prostitution. In her 9 years at TWRF, she has devoted herself to promoting awareness about institutionalized sexual slavery by the Japanese military during WWII (“comfort women”), as well as to the prevention of gender violence in Taiwan. She is the executive producer of Song of the Reed, a documentary depicting the stories of Taiwanese “comfort women” survivors, as well as the chief editor of the book The Reason to be Strong, which shares the recovery processes of these survivors. She is currently leading a team in preparing for a women’s rights museum in the memory of Taiwanese “comfort women.”  http://www.twrf.org.tw/

 

Mina WATANABE is Secretary General of the Women’s Active Museum on War and Peace (WAM) based in Tokyo, which focuses on violence against women in conflict situations including military sexual slavery during the Second World War (the “comfort women”). Founded in 2005, WAM was a recipient of the Catholic Pax Christi’s International Peace Award in 2007. She has worked in women’s NGOs and parliamentarians’ offices with a focus on women’s rights, and was actively involved in The Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal for the Trial of Japan’s Military Sexual Slavery held in Tokyo in 2000.  http://wampeace.org/en/

 

 Please RSVP here. 

This event will be webcast HERE.

Thursday, Mar 12, 2015 – Understanding Sexual Violence in Conflict: Regional Views of the Comfort Women Legacy

The Japanese islands are surrounded by a group of nations—Russia, South Korea, North Korea and China—where historic relations remain frayed, territorial disputes remain unresolved, and residual anger from harsh colonialism and past wars continue to sour relations. While Japan’s relations continue to deteriorate with China and South Korea over historical and territorial issues, the island of Taiwan stands out singularly as Japan’s good neighbor. ~ Dennis P. Halpin

In recent years, Japan and Taiwan have pursued multiple bilateral cultural and economic projects despite unresolved historical issues from World War II. USKI Visiting Scholar Dennis P. Halpin discusses legacy of Japanese imperialism and Comfort Women as more than a bilateral challenge for Japan and South Korea, and suggests future Taiwan-Japan cooperation on historical topics could set a precedent for reconciliation in East Asia.

Download the USKI Policy Brief: “Taiwan and Japan: The Good Neighbor Faces History Issues,” by Dennis P. Halpin.

Dennis P. Halpin is a Visiting Scholar at the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He is a former adviser on Asian issues to the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs. He served as a State Department Foreign Service officer in Taipei, Beijing, Seoul and Pusan.

Tuesday, Mar 11, 2014 – Labor Standards and South Korean Employment Practices in North Korea