From Nationalism to Globalism: Toward a Korean history narrative beyond ideological contention

Filed Under: Events, South Korea, Events

A luncheon sponsored by the U.S.-Korea Institute at SAIS,
the Korea Foundation and the Korean Cultural Center

 

Featuring:

Djun Kil Kim
Professorial & Research Chair,
Samsung Korean Studies Program,
University of Asia & the Pacific, Manila

 

The interpretations of Japanese colonial occupation and the post-World War II national division on the Korean Peninsula have historians and educators in South Korea currently divided into two conflicting ideological and academic camps: the leftist vs. the rightist groups. In order to seek a true and correct understanding of contemporary Korean history, Prof. Kim pursues a narrative which explains how Korea has developed and transformed with the influence of global civilization doctrines, such as Buddhism, Neo-Confucianism, Christianity, Communism, and American functionalism, throughout its history.

 

Djun Kil Kim has been teaching and researching Korean studies as Professorial & Research Chair of Samsung Korean Studies Program at University of Asia & the Pacific in Manila, Philippines since 2009. After a journalist career in major Korean dailies and a wide array of foreign missions in public diplomacy of the Republic of Korea in Europe and America for more than two decades, Prof Kim taught Korean history and civilization in several universities at home and abroad, (including Yonsei, Brigham Young, and Stockholm University) and has received many awards for his contribution to the Korea Studies field. In 2004, Prof Kim authored The History of Korea, a comprehensive Korean history book in English published by Greenwood Press, with a second edition issued as an imprint of ABC-CLIO in 2014 in the U.S. He obtained his B.A. and M.A. in sociology from Seoul National University.

*This event is on the record and open to the public and media. Light lunch will  be available.