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Category Archives: BAKS

BAKS conference report: looking forward / looking back

12-Sep-08

BAKS conference report: looking forward / looking back

The 2008 BAKS conference at Clare College Cambridge started and finished with talks with a distinctly global flavour. People came from the four corners of the globe, with presenters from New Zealand, Singapore, Hawaii, Germany and the US. And we were also fortunate to have the support of the ROK ambassador, Chun Young-woo, plus the immediate past UK ambassador to the ROK, Warwick Morris. [caption id="attachment_5224" align="alignright" width="183" caption="Nami Morris performs Jindo Buk Chum"][/caption] The conference opened with a bang, as the champagne corks popped in the Clare College JCR bar – generously funded by the ROK embassy – followed by some Jindo drumming from Nami Morris in the adjoining vaulted crypt underneath the Chapel. Lee Chul Jin then performed an atmospheric ...
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BAKS 2008 conference agenda finalised

28-Aug-08

BAKS 2008 conference agenda finalised

A reminder of the upcoming BAKS conference, The Koreas at sixty: Looking Forward / Looking Back, to be held in Cambrige 8-10 September. Full details of the cost, and how to book, are on the BAKS website here. You don't need to be a BAKS member to come along, and the one in Sheffield two years ago was both fun and informative. But you do need to pre-register, particularly if you want dinner, accommodation or generally expect to be looked after. For registration, contact Dr John Swenson-Wright at jhs22 at cam dot ac dot uk. The agenda is now final. Something for everyone: Monday, September 8, 2008 15.00 to 17.30: Arrival and Registration 18.00: Drinks reception, including two performances of Korean dance: Salpuri (performed ...
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BAKS 2008 Cambridge Conference: first announcement

16-Jun-08

BAKS 2008 Cambridge Conference: first announcement

THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR KOREAN STUDIES 2008 Biennial Conference ‘The Koreas at 60: Looking Back, Looking Forward’ FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT The Association will host its biennial conference at Clare College, the University of Cambridge from Monday 8 September to Wednesday 10 September. The Keynote Speaker on the evening of 8 September will be Prof. Meredith Jung-En Woo, Dean of Arts and Sciences at the University of Virginia, USA. There will be a plenary panel of diplomats and scholars on the first day to discuss current affairs on the Korean peninsula, followed by a series of papers on topics of historical and contemporary interest to be given by British and international scholars. The Conference will begin with the Reception at 6:00PM on Monday, and conclude at ...
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The Anglo-Korean Society post-graduate bursary

25-Apr-08
Not to be confused with the SOAS / AKS post-graduate bursary. That particular AKS is the Academy of Korean Studies. This post is about the Anglo-Korean Society's bursary, administered by BAKS. Having sorted out that little confusion, read on... The Anglo-Korean Society through the Bursary Committee of the British Association for Korean Studies is offering a single £500 bursary on a competitive basis to post-graduate students. The Anglo-Korean Society was founded in 1956 to foster friendship between the United Kingdom and the Republic of Korea. By providing opportunities for contacts between British nationals and Koreans residing in or visiting Britain, the Society seeks to bring together everyone in the UK who has an interest in Korean matters, and to act as a forum for ...
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Anglo-Korean Society postgraduate bursary

27-Jan-08
ANGLO-KOREAN SOCIETY BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR KOREAN STUDIES The AKS and BAKS are pleased to announce the Anglo-Korean Society Post-Graduate Bursary Programme. A single £500 bursary is being offered on a competitive basis to taught and research post-graduate students. The submission date for all applications will be 1 April, 2008. The programme will be administered by the Bursary Committee of the British Association for Korean Studies on behalf of the Anglo-Korean Society. Information about the bursary and application forms may be obtained from the Chair of the BAKS Bursary Committee, Prof. James H. Grayson, or from the BAKS website at www.baks.org.uk which will be put up shortly. Prof. Grayson's contact details are: Prof. James H. Grayson, Chair BAKS Bursary Committee School of East Asian Studies University of Sheffield Sheffield S10 ...
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Dec 07 BAKS conference report #7: Koen De Ceuster

07-Dec-07
Dr Koen De Ceuster - Docent, Leiden University The Korean delegation at the 1907 Peace Conference in The Hague Abstract: Barred from attending the Hague Peace Conference, the Korean delegation at first sight miserably failed in its task of representing Korea at the Conference. Reading this episode as a continuation of Kojong's ongoing attempts to secure Korean neutrality under international law, the dispatch of the delegation to The Hague becomes a show of great acumen by Kojong who confronted the powers with the ambiguity between the lofty ideals of sovereign equality and the reality of 'legalized hierarchies'. Approaching the Korean deputation from perspective of the international community present in The Hague and its reactions to the sudden appearance of this unexpected deputation, ...
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Dec 07 BAKS conference report #6: Owen Miller

07-Dec-07
Dr Owen Miller - Research Fellow, Centre for Korean Studies, SOAS The crisis of Seoul's traditional commercial system, 1876-1895 Abstract: The guild system of late Chosŏn Seoul and the guild-government trade underpinned the commerce of the capital city and represented a significant slice of national commerce as a whole. This premodern commercial system rested on three planks: a government that could afford to pay high prices for commodities; long-term stability in market prices; and a system of mixed commodity payments. However, in the 1880s all three of these factors were undermined, primarily by severe inflation and government insolvency, but also by the entrance of foreign merchants into the market and increased levels of bureaucratic corruption. This paper traces the origins and development ...
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Dec 07 BAKS conference report #5: James Grayson

07-Dec-07
Professor James Grayson - Professor of Modern Korean Studies and Director of Centre for Korean Studies, Sheffield University Ch'udo yebae: a Protestant substitute for Confucian ancestral rituals Abstract: An early resolution of a conflict of values is necessary if a missionary religion is to find acceptance in the culture of the receiving society. In East Asia, under the influence of Confucianism, filial piety came to be seen as the principal personal and social moral value, which moral sentiment was to be given visible representation in the performance of ancestral rituals. Christian missions, Catholic and Protestant, faced a conflict between filial piety and ancestral rites on the one hand, and the proscription of the performance of idolatrous rites on the other hand. From ...
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Dec 07 BAKS conference report #4: James B. Lewis

07-Dec-07
Dr James B. Lewis - University Lecturer in Korean History, Oxford University Korean expansion and decline from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century: a view suggested by Adam Smith Abstract: The first price runs for Korean rice help us develop a Smithian physiocratic model to explain the low, stable prices of the eighteenth century and the rising, volatile prices of the nineteenth. Ownership rights provided incentives, and productivity after 1600 exceeded subsistence to achieve rural commercialization. Infrastructure investment from the late seventeenth century promoted development and prosperity, but declining investment, dysfunctional institutions, bad weather, and a population crash pushed the economy towards subsistence in the nineteenth. Decline saw rice monoculture, inflation, and price volatility even before imperialism's impact. Parallels with China suggest ...
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Dec 07 BAKS conference report #3: Peter Kornicki

07-Dec-07
Professor Peter Kornicki - Professor of East Asian Studies, University of Cambridge Publishing and translation in the Chosŏn period Abstract: Korea is famous in the global history of printing not only for the concrete evidence of printing in the eighth century found at the Bulguksa but also for the development and use of movable type several centuries before Gutenberg in Europe, but there is another reason for taking interest in the Korean book in the Chosŏn dynasty (1392-1910). The creation of the Hangul alphabet in the fifteenth century made it possible for the first time to print not only Chinese texts but also Korean texts, and in this paper I shall be focusing on a range of publications which combine original Chinese ...
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Dec 07 BAKS conference report #2: Anders Karlsson

07-Dec-07
Dr Anders Karlsson - Lecturer in Korean, SOAS Royal benevolence and disaster relief in Choson Korea No abstract is available Notes (the usual caveats about my amateur efforts apply) AK started with a brief account of the severe floods in Pyongan province in 1859. The records indicate that the central government sent an "admonishing magistrate" to assess the situation, provide comfort and advice, and to distribute aid. Compensation was provided for loss of life and property. AK traced the history of both types of aid: Loss of life A practice inherited from China Initially only granted to the families of high officials who lost their life in the course of their duties. Subsequently extended to soldiers who died in national service King Sejong in 1442 widened the scope to ...
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Dec 07 BAKS conference report #1: Martina Deuchler

07-Dec-07
Professor Martina Deuchler - Professor of Korean Emerita & Professorial Research Associate, SOAS The social in society: some reflections on the meaning of descent groups in Korean history Abstract: The presentation will focus on the history of what I call the Korean "descent group" (ssijok) and trace its evolution from early Korea (Silla and Koryŏ, ca. fifth to fourteenth centuries) through the Chosŏn dynasty (1392-1910). It will be argued that descent groups were not only the fundamental social organization of Korean kin; they also dominated the allocation of the political and economic resources. Two momentous events had a profound impact on their development: the introduction of the Chinese-style examination system in 958 and the adoption of Neo-Confucianism as state ideology by the ...
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Call for papers - 2008 BAKS conference

15-Nov-07
Call for Papers: The 2008 Conference of the British Association of Korean Studies The next conference of the British Association of Korean Studies (BAKS) will take place between the 8th and 10th of September 2008. The venue will be Clare College, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK. The theme of the proceedings will be "The Koreas at 60 - Looking Forward / Looking Back." The BAKS council invites submissions of paper abstracts on the theme of the conference from individuals who wish to participate. (These can either be individual submissions or panel proposals, and submissions are especially welcome from graduate students.). The deadline for submission of abstracts is December 31st, 2007. While BAKS hopes to provide for as many papers as possible, the ...
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Social and Cultural Change in late pre-modern Korea

11-Nov-07
A one-day conference at the British Academy organised in collaboration with the British Association for Korean Studies Convenors: Professor Peter Kornicki, FBA - Professor of East Asian Studies, University of Cambridge Professor James H. Grayson - Professor of Modern Korean Studies, University of Sheffield Friday 7 December 2007 9.30am - 5.00pm The British Academy, 10 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AH £30 (£15 concessions, postgraduate students may attend free of charge) Interest in Korea has been growing steadily in the UK over the last twenty years, partly because of the political tensions on the Korean peninsula but also because of the growing awareness that Korea has had a key role to play in East Asia, and as a result the British Association for Korean Studies is now ...
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Modern Encounters and Mutual Perceptions

28-Apr-07
Thanks to Grace Koh for organising the joint CKS / BAKS half day at SOAS on Wednesday. An interesting sharing of papers, with UK-based academics presenting papers on the British encounters with Korea, and Seoul based academics providing the opposite view. We started with early views of Western civilization as viewed from Korea through their tributary missions to China. Shin Il-cheol discussed the account by Kang Hobu of an embassy to Beijing originally written in 1727 and then re-published in 1839 with additional commentary by the author's great-grandson. The account contains passages on Western learning introduced to China by the Jesuits, and therefore provides insights into Korean attitudes to this learning over that period. Kang Hobu showed an open-mindedness towards Western astronomy ...
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How like “Swiri” is “The Way Home”?

15-Sep-06

How like “Swiri” is “The Way Home”?

That's the intriguing question posed by Andrew Jackson's talk at the Sheffield BAKS conference last week. It was a question prompted by a statement by Ahn Sang-gun, a senior figure in KOTRA, the Korean Trade Investment Promotion Agency, and reported in the Donga Ilbo on 5 April 2003: that The Way Home and Swiri are the two films that best represent the modern face of the South Korean nation. Hmm. A Hollywood style action flick and a feel-good movie about a spoilt brat who can't get his choco-pies when staying with his impoverished granny out in the sticks. How could either of these films be said to represent South Korean modernity? Andrew Jackson accepted the challenge. It was an interesting compare and ...
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2006 BAKS conference

11-Sep-06
The BAKS conference in Sheffield last week had a broad range of speakers. What follows is a personal response to the proceedings, and isn't meant to be in any way an official account. I apologise to those speakers to whom I devote fewer words. No disrespect is intended. In any occasion like this, some talks are going to resonate more than others, depending on the listener's own interests and level of knowledge. We opened with Margaret Drabble giving an insight into her experiences writing The Red Queen. The book took 5 years to realise, much of which was taken up in senseless battles over copyright. It's a mystery to me why the scholar responsible for the best translation of Lady ...
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BAKS conference agenda announced

10-Aug-06
The British Association for Korean Studies has finalised the programme for their 2006 conference. Full details below. Anyone interested in attending is invited to submit an application form (pasted in below) which should reach the Conference Organiser no later than Monday 21 August. British Association for Korean Studies 2006 Biennial Conference Programme Theme: 'Generations in Korea: Past, Present and Future' Venue: Halifax Hall, The University of Sheffield 6 - 7 September, 2006 Wednesday, 6 September 2 - 5:45 PM Registration 6 - 6:30 PM - Reception 6:30 - 8 PM Conference Dinner 8 - 9:30 Opening Session Margaret Drabble - The Writing of The Red Queen. Chair and Commentator - Dr. Agnita Tennant Thursday 7 September 7:30 - 8:45 AM Breakfast 9 - 10:30 AM Panel 1 Chair - Dr. Grace Koh Han-rog Kang Sickness of ...
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BAKS Spring Newsletter published

09-May-06
Here's a link. http://www.dur.ac.uk/BAKS/NewsSpring06.html. Lots of interesting stuff, including news of a new blog on Korean history, http://www.froginawell.net/korea, which I'll add to the static pages on my main site. They are also good enough to plug my site, which is very good of them, seeing as the plug was unsolicited. To return the favour, please join BAKS!
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