A reader at ukfan’s DJG Comic Relief forum is doing a research project on Dae Jang Geum. He’s a PhD researcher at Centre for Tourism and Cultural Change at Leeds Metropolitan University. As part of this he needs your help to perfect a cultural survey. The survey can be found here. Please email it to … [Read More]
Category: Language & Learning (page 74)
Two ambassadors and a minister at Chatham House
Next week is an eventful one for followers of the foreign relations of the two Koreas. On Wednesday afternoon there’s a rare opportunity to hear two of the most senior figures from the foreign ministry of the DPRK speak on the subject of the DPRK’s foreign relations, while on Thursday lunchtime the Korea Discussion Group … [Read More]
SOAS workshop: Culture and Society in Modern Korea
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 … [Read More]
British-North Korea Parliamentary Group meeting
The All-party British-North Korea Parliamentary Group is holding an evidence session at 11:00am on Tuesday 19 June in the Moses Room in the Houses of Parliament. The purpose of group, chaired by Lord Alton, is to engage in dialogue with the Government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea; to develop links between parliamentarians in … [Read More]
Oxford lecture on Koguryo and Balhae
With apologies for the late notice, I’ve just heard about a lecture on Koguryo and Balhae / Parhae / Bohai at Oxford tomorrow. Details as follows: Institute for Chinese Studies University of Oxford Trinity Term 2007 Seminar Series Koguryo and Bohai in the East Asian world order Tineke D’Haeseleer Institute of Chinese Studies University of … [Read More]
Call for papers – Edinburgh conference 20-22 Sept
Call for Papers: 4th Korean Studies Graduate Students Convention (KSGSC) in Europe Edinburgh, UK: 20-22 September 2007 The School of Social and Political Studies at the University of Edinburgh (UK) is pleased to announce the 4th Korean Studies Graduate Students Convention. The event is hosted by the University of Edinburgh (UK) and will take place … [Read More]
Kim Hunggyu: Understanding Korean Literature
ME Sharpe, 1997 Written in 1986 and expertly translated by Robert Fouser ten years later, this is a highly readable basic introduction to the wide variety of Korean literary forms. The scope of the work includes oral literature, literature written in Korean but using Chinese characters, and, perhaps controversially, literature written in classical Chinese, as … [Read More]
Conference Report: Modern Encounters and Mutual Perceptions
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 … [Read More]
Korean language meet-ups
The eagle-eyed among you will have noticed a new type of event at the bottom of my “April Events” post. It’s a Korean language meet-up. It seems there’s a group of like-minded people — some native Korean speakers and some learners — who meet up once a month in the West End somewhere, and, (I’m … [Read More]
Upcoming Korea Discussion Group talk at Chatham House
Another talk has been arranged for lunchtime on 3 April, on the topic of Inside North Korea: Changes and Continuity. The speaker will be Dr Kongdan Oh. Biography, courtesy of the Korea Discussion Group: Dr. Kongdan (Katy) Oh is a Research Staff Member at the Institute for Defense Analyses and a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at … [Read More]
The Japanese counter-wave
March’s edition of Seoul magazine has an interesting article discussing how cultural waves do not travel in just one direction. Supporters of Korean culture are keen to point out the unstoppability of the hallyu: Rain in the Philippines, BoA in Japan, Super Junior in China, TV Dramas everywhere (except the UK it seems). Back home, … [Read More]
Amnesty International on Human Rights in North and South Korea
Rajiv Narayan’s talk at Chatham House last week about Amnesty International’s activities and concerns on the Korean peninsula was timely but yet somehow seemed to miss the point. I was reminded about the story of a drunk who was found grovelling on the pavement underneath a streetlamp at 3am. A concerned passer-by asked him what … [Read More]
Two free talks this Friday (16 March)
Firstly, Chatham House Korea Discussion Group: 13.15-14.30 (Lunch 12.45-13.15 – £10 charge) Keeping the Flame of Human Rights in the Korean Peninsula: The Role of an International Human Rights NGO, Amnesty International in the Two Koreas Speaker: Rajiv Narayan Chair: Jim Hoare Further details on the Chatham House website. Secondly, SOAS Centre for Korean Studies … [Read More]
Loanwords in twentieth century Korean literature
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 … [Read More]
Feminism and women artists in Korean art
Lecture 5 in Jiyoon Lee’s Art & Society in Modern Korea course. Big caveat: a very simplistic and immature summary, prepared by someone with limited knowledge or understanding of these things, of a very brief lecture covering a huge topic. Treat with extreme caution. Posted here as a “stub” (in Wiki terms) which I might … [Read More]
Call for Papers: ISKS conference, SOAS, Aug 2007
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 … [Read More]