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Korean Studies Initiative

Korean Studies at UCSD has been growing steadily over the past decade. As of 2010, Korean ranks among the top five or six most studied foreign languages on campus. Although not yet formally established as a program, UCSD also offers a wide variety of Korea-related courses in several departments, including Literature, History, Music, and IR/PS (International Relations/Pacific Studies). Students who are interested in Korea can enroll in courses offered by these departments to fulfill various requirements of their colleges. At present, UCSD’s Korean Studies faculty are working to establish a minor for interested undergraduates.

During academic year 2010-2011, the Korean Studies faculty in the Arts and Humanities are presenting a new speaker and performer’s series, entitled “Modern (Sub-) Empires and Transnational Korea.” Sponsored by a grant from the Office of the Dean and with additional support from the Korea-Pacific Program (IR/PS), this series will bring to campus a number of distinguished scholars who have contributed to this growing field of study. For more details on these events, click here.

May 10, 2012: 4-5:30pm: "Mothering Disability in the Midst of the Compulsion and Prohibition of Reproduction" (Eunjung Kim)

May 4, 2012, 4-6pm: "Flog the Husband to Feed the Children, The Hŭnbo Manura's Song: A Transnational Interpretive P'ansori adapted from P'ansori Song of Hŭngbo" (Chan E. Park)

April 26, 2012, 4-5:30pm: "Building Leisure our of National Trauma: Tourism and Consumption along the Korean Demilitarized Zone" (Suk-Young Kim)

November 17, 2011, 4-5:30pm: "Korean Writer's Japanophone Literature from Colonial Korea: Yi Kwang-Su's and Kim Sa-Ryang's Work" (Watanabe Naoki)

March 4, 2011, 3-5:00pm: "Faceless Things: South Korean Gay Men, Internet, and Sexual Citizenship" (John [Song Pae] Cho)

January 28, 2011, 5-6:30pm: "Women's Work during the Pacific War: The Labor Volunteer Corps in Late-Colonial Korea, 1937-1945" (Jance C.H. Kim)

October 11, 2010, 5-6:30pm: "Reflections on the Intimate University: Korean American Students and the Problem of Segregation" (Nancy Abelmann)

November 18, 2010, 5-6:30pm: "US Military Bases and the Politics of Gender, Sexuality, Race, and Class: A Comparative Study of South Korea and Okinawa" (Seungsook Moon)

November 10, 2010, 5-6:30pm: "Misrecognition, Disrecognition, Recognition: The Case of Zainichi (Koreans in Japan)" (John Lie)