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Category Archives: SOAS

Linguistics conference at SOAS

05-Aug-08
A bargain three-day conference begins at SOAS this Thursday. Full details here. A bit beyond me I'm afraid. I'm still struggling with my counting words.
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Bargains at SOAS publishing workshop

21-Jun-08

Bargains at SOAS publishing workshop

It’s always worth turning up to an event when you know that book publishers are present. Brill, Saffron and Global Oriental were all present at the SOAS Korean publishing workshop on Monday. With Saffron selling their catalogue at half price on the night, and Global Oriental discounting everything to £20 (including the collected BAKS papers, list price £95), there were plenty of bargains to be had, and I managed to cancel a few items off my Amazon wishlist as well as purchase a couple of books I headn’t been tracking. The event was partly to celebrate the launch of the Selected Writings of Han Yongun (above right), which was done in style, with plenteous wine and nibbles plus a traditional dance ...
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Korean Studies Publishing in Europe - SOAS Workshop

12-Jun-08

Korean Studies Publishing in Europe - SOAS Workshop

Please find below the details of a Korean Studies Publishing in Europe Workshop and book launch taking place on Monday 16 June 2008. The event will take place at SOAS in the Khalili Lecture theatre at 1pm. It coincides with the publication of the "Selected Writings of Han Yong-un" by Global Oriental, stalwarts of Korean Studies publishing, a representative of whom will be speaking at the conference. Also represented will be Saffron Books - a niche publisher with a Korean specialism - and Brill, who publish the Korea Yearbook among other things. There's a review of one of Saffron's publications coming very soon on LKL, just as soon as I can check a fact. Click on the below for a full-size version ...
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Book now for some outrageously fun evenings

29-May-08
A regular feature of the summer evenings is the SOAS world music summer school. Two years ago I went along to the Samulnori summer school run by the excellent Dulsori and had a ball. Last year, LKL woman of the year 2006 Rowan Pease went along with her daughter and had a whale of a time. This year it's your turn. Korean Samulnori Percussion Dulsori Ensemble Date: 7 July 2008, Time: 6:00 PM Finishes: 11 July 2008, Time: 8:00 PM Venue: Russell Square: College Buildings Type of Event: Summer School Series: Summer Music School Timetable Course Dates: 07-11 July, Mon-Fri 6-8pm Course Fee: £75 (concs £55) Samulnori is the contemporary form of a rural percussion tradition stretching back into antiquity. Today, Samulnori is the most popular style in the Korean traditional ...
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SOAS - AKS Postgraduate Bursary

15-Apr-08
SOAS is pleased to announce a second postgraduate Korean Studies scholarship for the academic year 2008-9. In addition to the previously announced Sochon Foundation Scholarship, SOAS will also be offering, in conjunction with the Academy of Korean Studies, the AKS Postgraduate Bursary. The bursary is worth £4,090 and can only be used to pay for tuition fees. The deadline for applications is May 30. For more information and application forms please see the website. Note - this bursary is not to be confused with the £500 post-graduate bursary offered by the other AKS, the Anglo-Korean Society. Links Details of bursary on SOAS website
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Sochon Foundation Scholarship at SOAS

13-Apr-08
Recently received from SOAS. The School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London is pleased to announce a new scholarship for Korean Studies. The Sochon Foundation Scholarship is open to students wishing to study for a Korea-related degree at postgraduate level, commencing in the coming academic year (2008-9). For more details please see this web page.
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Paul French: Chollima Speed to Slow Motion Famine

27-Jan-08
In Cambridge and London this week. First, Tuesday, 29th January, 2008 at 5pm in the Common Room, Faculty of Asian & Middle Eastern Studies, Sidgwick Avenue, Cambridge. The University of Cambridge Department of East Asian Studies presents an East Asia Institute seminar: Paradise Lost: From Chollima Speed to Slow Motion Famine How North Korea Got Where it is Today To be given by: Mr Paul French Access Asia, Shanghai From one of the worlds 20 largest economies in 1975 to an estimated two million dead from famine twenty years later and then to the worlds most isolated and little understood nuclear power. How did North Korea manage to so spectacularly mismanage its economy, manage its people, seal its borders and get the bomb? Paul French, the author ...
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Spring term SOAS free seminars

08-Jan-08
The event schedule for the SOAS Centre of Korean Studies has just been announced for the current term Fridays, 5pm Room G52, Ground Floor, Main Building SOAS, Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG (except where otherwise stated) For further details contact: Rahima Begum (rb41 AT soas DOT ac DOT uk) All Welcome These Seminars are open to the public. No booking is required. Friday 18 January, 5pm, G52 Staffan Rosen, Stockholm University Merit and Reward - The Imperial Korean System of Decorations 1900-1910 in an International Perspective Friday 25 January, 5pm, G52 Valerie Gelezeau, EHESS Landscapes of power in Seoul - Apartment complexes and the modernization of the South Korean city Thursday 31 January, 5pm, G52 Carl Saxer, Associate Professor, Asia Research Centre, Copenhagen Business School The Return of the Regions or the ...
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Study Korean and Japanese Art at SOAS

09-Dec-07
A great opportunity to find out more about Korean art: study towards a Postgraduate Diploma in Asian Art. [ad#small-horizontal] Study Korean and Japanese Art at SOAS -- April -- July 2008 The former British Museum postgraduate diploma course in Asian Art will now be offered at SOAS from 2008. Korea and Japan are seen in their Asian context,particularly in their relationship with each other and, above all, with China (right). The programme is object based, with the special study of objects, prints and paintings from the collections of the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum while lectures are given by leading experts. The Korea and Japan module will run for 12 weeks from April 2008, covering the artistic heritage of Korea ...
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Us and Them in Kenkanryu

02-Dec-07

Us and Them in Kenkanryu

Wednesday's talk on the Japanese manga Kenkanryu was packed to overflowing -- a strong contrast with the generally much sparser attendance at the Centre for Korean Studies seminars. Whether that's a reflection of the greater number of people enrolled in Japanese Studies courses, or the popular culture subject matter I don't know. In these few paragraphs I can't do justice to the richness of Nicola Liscutin's analysis -- and with all the Japanese names flying around I was getting a little confused. It would be fascinating to get hold of an English translation of the books, but I can't imagine that many people apart from me would buy one. For those unfamiliar with the manga, it presents a strongly conservative Japanese view ...
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The Japanese anti-Korean wave

27-Nov-07
Although this is a bit last minute, readers might be interested in tomorrow's Japan Research Centre Seminar, which concerns the nationalist manga phenomenon 'Kenkanryu' and the so-called 'Anti-Korean Wave' in Japan. Wednesday 28 November, 5pm, SOAS main buildings G51 "Surfing the neo-nationalist wave: a case study of the manga Kenkanryu" Dr Nicola Liscutin (Birkbeck College)
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SOAS Centre for Korean Studies autumn seminar series

09-Nov-07
Apologies for the delay in posting this - it arrived while I was on holiday Note the difference in venue for the 5 December talk. Friday 2 November, 5pm, room G52 Akira Utsugi, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Edinburgh "Tone and intonation in Seoul and Gyeongsang Korean" Friday 16 November, 5pm, room G52 Janet Poole, Visiting Scholar, Centre of Korean Studies, SOAS "Unruly Detail: Writing, Photography and Crisis in Late Colonial Korea" Friday 23 November, 5pm, room G52 Joerg Plassen, Assistant Professor of Korean Studies, Ruhr-Universität Bochum "Literati Sŏn and Buddhist Neo-Confucianism: Hybrid tendencies in the intellectual life of the Early Chosŏn period, focusing on Kim Sisûp alias Sôlcham" Friday 30 November, 5pm, room G52 Andrew Logie, digital cinematographer and researcher "Contemporary Tradition: a showing of pansori and instrumental performances filmed in Korea this ...
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Asia Contemporary

22-Oct-07
Designed to coincide with Asian Art in London, there's an intensive five-day course at SOAS, University of London, focusing on Asian Contemporary Art. Well worth exploring if you have the opportunity: ASIA CONTEMPORARY 5th -- 9th November 2007 Course includes: Lectures and seminars by leading experts and working artists Visits to galleries and auction houses Course Objectives: To give an in-depth knowledge of contemporary Asian art, focusing on Indian, Pakistan, the Middle East, China, Japan and Korea. To encourage students to relate to contemporary Asian art from both an academic and business viewpoint. To allow students a unique opportunity to examine works of art from the British museums collections, currently not on show. To offer students lectures by world renowned academics on their specialist subjects. Provisional running order is as follows: MONDAY ...
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Unequal treaties

16-Sep-07
A quick notice of a seminar upcoming this week: Centre of Korean Studies Seminar 18th of September 2007. Venue: SOAS Room B111 Time: 5pm - 7pm Han Seunghoon (Korea University) The Beginning of the Unequal Treaty System in Late-Nineteenth century Choson As usual, the event is free and no pre-booking is required
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The Grand Culture Project

22-Aug-07
At the SOAS / AKS conference on 26 June, the talk by Kim Hyeon, Associate Professor of Cultural Informatics at the Academy of Korean Studies, had the title "the Korean Wave, Cultural Content and Cultural Informatics". "What on earth is Cultural Informatics?" I hear you ask. You would not be alone. But read on. The premise of the thesis runs roughly thus: Some of the biggest hallyu hits have been Joseon dynasty historical dramas. Take Dae Jang Geum and the King and the Clown. These have been great export earners for Korea, Inc. Wouldn't it be great if you could bottle the formula? But a brief look at the genesis of the King and the Clown highlights a problem in the lifecycle of a ...
Also filed in Business, Conference reports, Dae Jang Geum, Film, Hallyu, Lee Jun-ik, TV drama | | Comments (0) »

ISKS conference agenda announced

02-Aug-07
Here's the provisional agenda. Apologies if I've misinterpreted a somewhat confusing Word document. Many parallel streams, I think. Thursday 16 August 8월 16일 (목) 09:00-09:30 개 회 식 10:00-12:00 분과회A 언어1 국어 불규칙동사의 기저형 재고 (김진우 - Univ.of Illinois) 최근 조선언어학계가 관심하고있는 연구방향과 성과 (문영호 - 사회과학원) 고구려어 연구 시론 -고구려어 문법 형태의 재구를 시도하며 (정 광 - 한국가톨릭대) The Honorifics Systems of Korean Language Learners (Lucien Brown - SOAS) 문학1 디아스포라문학으로서의 중국조선족문학의 창작실태와 그 특징에 대하여 (오상순 - 중앙민족대) 선군문학에 대한 리론적고찰 (고철훈 - 사회과학원) 만주 이주민소설의 공간연구- 조선, 한국, 중국조선족의 작품 비교를 중심으로 (서영빈 - 대외경제무역대) 중한 신화에 나타난 문화적 요소의 비교연구 (임효려 - 대련외대) 사회/교육1 “I am a Kirogi mother”: globalization, familism, and English education in Korean immigrant women (Hakyoon Lee - University of Hawaii) Family Status, Working Experience, and Korean Women’s Attitude to ...
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Last chance to register…

13-Jul-07
The Samulnori Summer School at SOAS is next week. If you can spare five evenings you'll have a great time. I can't promise you'll end up being able to drum like the fellow on the right, but you'll be able to do a convincing imitation of being able to hit a changgo. And by the end of the week you will be able to touch your toes if you weren't able to at the start of the week. Even if you don't see this post until Monday, you may be OK. Last year one of our class only found out about it on the Monday night at a Samulnori concert on the South Bank (I think Kim Duk-soo was in town) - ...
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SOAS workshop 26 June: Culture and Society in Modern Korea

21-Jun-07
SOAS has now announced the programme for its free one-day Korean Studies workshop on 26 June. There are some entertaining speakers. Jim Hoare will be talking about the South's engagement policy; Keith Howard looks like he's going to be talking about something way over my head but he usually presents in a user-friendly manner. I'm sorry I never got around to writing about his brief talk given at Asia House on 6 March, where he gave a taster for what's in his two-volume magnum opus on Korean music; maybe the lecture next week draws on some of this material. One good thing has come out of his upcoming talk already: while googling Kugak music I discovered a promising (if rarely ...
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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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Loanwords in twentieth century Korean literature

01-Mar-07
The chosen specialist subject of Antonetta Bruno, from La Sapienza in Rome, is Korean shamanism. But she has an interesting sideline in linguistics. Her theme at SOAS's Centre for Korean Studies last Friday evening (23 Feb) was the extent to which Korean has borrowed words from foreign languages, particularly in the first half of the twentieth century. Before the twentieth century, Korea's first stock of loanwords (외래어) came from Chinese, or via China, reflecting Korea's diplomatic status relative to China. The words in general related to topics such as geography or science which were outside of Korea's range of experience. In the colonial period, clearly it is difficult to disentangle the study of Japanese loanwords from the compulsory Japanisation of Korea. However, ...
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Call for Papers: ISKS conference, SOAS, Aug 2007

23-Feb-07
제8차 코리아학국제학술토론회 The 8th ISKS International Conference of Korean Studies 일시(Dates) : 2007년 ８월 16일(목)-17일(금) August 16 (Thurs) ~ 17 (Fri), 2007 장소(Venue) : 영국 런던대학교 쏘아즈(아시아아프리카학원) School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, UK 언어(Language) : 한국/조선어, 영어 (Korean, English) 주최(Co-organized) : 국제고려학회, 런던대학 SOAS 한국학센타, 국제고려학회 유럽지부 International Society for Korean Studies (ISKS) Centre of Korean Studies, SOAS, University of London ISKS European Branch 논/론문 모집 Call for Papers 국제고려학회가 주최하는 제8차 코리아학국제학술토론회가 2007년 8월 16일(목요일)부터 17일(금요일)까지 영국 런던대학 SOAS에서 개최될 예정입니다. 이번 토론회가 회원들의 최신 연구성과 발표의 자리, 또한 각 지부 회원들간의 친목을 돈독히 할 수 있는 좋은 기회가 되기를 기대하며 회원 여러분들의 적극적인 참여를 부탁 드립니다. The organizing committee of the 8th ISKS International Conference of Korean Studies announces call for papers to all members of International Society for Korean ...
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Korean literature talk at SOAS

20-Feb-07
Antonetta Bruno (La Sapienza) will be talking on the theme of "Loanwords in Korean novels at the beginning of the 21st century" at SOAS on Friday afternoon 23 February, 5pm, in Room G52. Literature boffins will know better than me what the talk is all about. I'm assuming it's nothing to do with APRs and bullet repayments. I'll try to find out if I manage to escape from work in time. If you do decide to go, make sure you remember that it's in G52. The receptionists at SOAS never have a clue that these events are happening. So if you wander up to the front desk and say vaguely that you've come for a Korean lecture you will be met with ...
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But is it Art?

13-Dec-06
Encounters with Painters in North Korea 5pm SOAS, 8 December 2006 Koen De Ceuster, Centre for Korean Studies, Leiden University "But is it Art"?: that was the question posed by Koen De Ceuster on Friday night at SOAS, as part of the series of talks held by the Centre for Korean Studies. The talk started from the premise that the view of North Korean art held in the West is that it is bombastic Socialist Realism: propaganda pictures of the Leaders giving advice to rosy-cheeked workers building a Juche paradise. And that's predominantly what you see, for example, in Jane Portal's book, in the British Museum, and in numerous holiday snaps of North Korea. The almost unspoken presumption is that techniques and subject-matter are ...
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Dulsori evening class # 5: the performance

22-Jul-06
If anything was going to go wrong, it was going to be the Hwimori. The others were easy: at most four lines, each one the same length, and played once before moving on to the next; and the cycle was repeated several times so that there was no way you were going to forget it. The Hwimori had 31 lines, of different lengths, played any number of times between one and 8 before moving on to the next one. That's a lot more to remember. We were wobbling by line 4 and completely lost by line 9. With some vigorous conducting and shouting by the professionals we somehow came back together by line 13, and from then on we ...
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Dulsori evening class # 4

21-Jul-06
I can touch my toes for the first time in ages. Such is the effect of sitting on the floor crouching over a drum for three hours solid, four days on the trot. Things were going swimmingly yesterday. We had all done our homework. We were remembering everything, doing the breathing, and actually laughing and enjoying ourselves rather than concentrating furiously on getting it right. So the instructors decided to make things more interesting. Let's cut the samulnori hwimori, they said, and go straight from the obangjin to the third line of the drum-only hwimori, make a quick change to that line, and, hey, didn't we tell you, there's a whole new page we haven't taught you yet. We set to it, ...
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