UCSD’s six full-time ladder-rank Koreanists and one full-time lecturer (across IR/PS and the A+H) place it second only to UCLA and ahead of USC, UC Irvine, and UC Berkeley. In addition, according to research by the American Association of Teachers of Korean, UCSD has the third largest Korean language program in the U.S. after UCLA and UC Berkeley. UCSD supports two Korean Studies programs, one in Social Sciences in IR/PS and the other in the A+H. UCSD seeks to integrate these two and build on them to create one of the premier overseas programs for research and teaching on modern and contemporary Korea.
UCSD has a sizable undergraduate population with a demonstrated interest in Korean Studies, including a large population of Korean Americans. Students with an interest in Korea come from a variety of academic backgrounds and with varied professional goals (e.g., students interested in Asia, business and international studies majors; students in the arts and humanities, including those with an interest in Asian American culture).
In the last several years, UCSD recommitted itself to expanding and consolidating Korean Studies into a unified program. In addition to hiring two new Koreanists in 2009 (Prof. Todd A. Henry, History; and Prof. Eun-Young Jung, Music), the A+H made a successful offer to retain Prof. Henry, the Principal Investigator and proposed Project Director on this application. It also underwrote the cost of an Administrative Assistant to support Korean Studies in the division and begin bringing Korean Studies to parity with other Asian Studies programs on campus. Meanwhile, IR/PS has long maintained a strong presence in Korean Studies and, as part of Prof. Henry’s retention, made a financial contribution of $15,000 to advance efforts to consolidate and coordinate the various activities outlined in this proposal.
Korean Studies in the Social Sciences in IR/PS. The larger, longer-standing Korea-Pacific Program for graduate students (http://irps.ucsd.edu/research/korea-pacific-program/about-us.htm) was founded in 1989 by Professor Emeritus Lawrence Krause in recognition of the growing importance of Korea to the U.S. and, more generally, to the Asia-Pacific region. This program promotes greater understanding of contemporary North and South Korea, covering international relations, politics, public policy, and the business environment. IR/PS faculty are known for their work on the international relations of Northeast Asia and comparative analysis of South and North Korea, for example, placing the former country in the context of the region’s rapid economic growth and the latter in the context of other late socialist countries.
The Korea-Pacific Program, co-directed by Professor Stephan Haggard, the Krause Professor of Korea-Pacific Studies (proposed Project Deputy Director on this application), and Assistant Professor Jong-Sung You, fosters its mission through various activities:
IR/PS offers a Master’s of International Affairs with a regional concentration on Korea, supported by faculty of the IR/PS Korea-Pacific Program. IR/PS also has two joint PhD programs in Political Science and International Affairs (with the Department of Political Science) and in Economics and International Affairs (with the Department of Economics) that allow students to focus on Korea.
Korean Studies in the Division of Arts and Humanities. The Program in Transnational Korean Studies (formerly, the Korean Studies Initiative; history.ucsd.edu/programs/korean-studies/) traces its roots back to the year 2000 when faculty in the division began offering courses on Korean literature and culture to supplement an already established curriculum of Korean language courses. In 2007, the division hired Prof. Kyong Park in the Visual Arts department. In 2009, the division hired Profs. Henry and Jung in the departments of History and Music, respectively. While it has a relatively short history, this program is maturing quickly because of increasing student demand, growing university support, and the potential for tighter integration and, therefore, increased synergy with IR/PS. This program already has five full-time faculty and five affiliated faculty, and we hope to expand it further by hiring an additional ladder-rank faculty member in the near future.
This program has a strong four-year language program (through advanced reading) with enrollment of more than 200 students per quarter, and student demand continues to grow. As of 2010, Korean ranks among the top five most studied foreign languages on campus. UCSD also offers a wide variety of Korea-related courses in several departments: Anthropology, Communication, Economics, Ethnic Studies, History, International Studies, Linguistics, Literature, Music, Political Science, Sociology, and Visual Arts.
In their research and teaching, faculty place a special emphasis on various aspects of the transnational construction of modern and contemporary Korea, especially in its relations to the dual empires of Japan and the U.S., as well as in its complex relations with China, the rest of Asia and, of course, the west. In addition to their educational and scholarly work on the humanities – in history and literature, for example – faculty in the division are also involved in creative approaches to Korean Studies such as in music and visual arts. In this way, almost every department of the division is represented by a Koreanist, a unique strength of UCSD that is rarely found even at larger institutions.
While the Korean Studies program in the A+H is much younger and a separate entity, it has benefited in numerous ways from collaboration with its counterpart at IR/PS in co-sponsoring talks, organizing conferences that cross disciplinary boundaries between arts/humanities and social sciences, organizing an annual Korean film festival, and sharing students. The presence and track record of the Korea-Pacific Program at IR/PS have been crucial to continuing growth in the arts and humanities. As a result, we are now in an ideal position to integrate the two programs under the name of Program in Transnational Korean Studies.