Korean studies is an academic discipline that focuses on the study of

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel north, 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and Sout ...

, which includes the

Republic of Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its east ...

, the

Democratic People's Republic of Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and ...

, and diasporic Korean populations. Areas commonly included under this rubric include Korean history,

Korean culture The traditional culture of Korea is the shared cultural and historical heritage of Korea and southern Manchuria before the division of Korea in 1945. Manchuria refers to the ancient geographical and historical region in Northeast Asia, includ ...

Korean literature Korean literature is the body of literature produced by Koreans, mostly in the Korean language and sometimes in Classical Chinese. For much of Korea's 1,500 years of literary history, it was written in Hanja. It is commonly divided into classic ...

Korean art Korean arts include traditions in calligraphy, music, painting and pottery, often marked by the use of natural forms, surface decoration and bold colors or sounds. The earliest examples of Korean art consist of Stone Age works dating from 30 ...

Korean music Korea refers to music from the Korean peninsula ranging from prehistoric times to the division of Korea into South and North in 1945. It includes court music, folk music, poetic songs, and religious music used in shamanistic and Buddhist tradit ...

Korean language Korean (South Korean: , ''hangugeo''; North Korean: , ''chosŏnmal'') is the native language for about 80 million people, mostly of Korean descent. It is the official and national language of both North Korea and South Korea (geographical ...

and linguistics, Korean sociology and anthropology, Korean politics, Korean economics, Korean folklore, Korean

ethnomusicology Ethnomusicology is the study of music from the cultural and social aspects of the people who make it. It encompasses distinct theoretical and methodical approaches that emphasize cultural, social, material, cognitive, biological, and other dim ...

and increasingly study of Korean popular culture. It may be compared to other

area studies Area studies (also known as regional studies) are interdisciplinary fields of research and scholarship pertaining to particular geographical, national/ federal, or cultural regions. The term exists primarily as a general description for what are, ...

disciplines, such as

American studies American studies or American civilization is an interdisciplinary field of scholarship that examines American literature, history, society, and culture. It traditionally incorporates literary criticism, historiography and critical theory. Scho ...

and

Chinese studies Sinology, or Chinese studies, is an academic discipline that focuses on the study of China primarily through Chinese philosophy, language, literature, culture and history and often refers to Western scholarship. Its origin "may be traced to t ...

. Korean studies is sometimes included within a broader regional area of focus including "

East Asian studies East Asian studies is a distinct multidisciplinary field of scholarly enquiry and education that promotes a broad humanistic understanding of East Asia past and present. The field includes the study of the region's culture, written language, histo ...

". The term Korean studies first began to be used in the 1940s, but did not attain widespread currency until

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...

rose to economic prominence in the 1970s. In 1991, the South Korean government established the Korea Foundation to promote Korean studies around the world. Korean studies was originally an area of study conceived of and defined by non-Koreans. Korean scholars of Korea tend to see themselves as linguists, sociologists, and historians, but not as "Koreanists" unless they have received at least some of their education outside Korea and are academically active (for example publishing and attending conferences)in languages other than Korean (most Korean studies publications are in English but there is also a significant amount of Korean Studies activity in other European languages), or work outside Korean academia. In the mid-2000s, Korean universities pushing for more classes taught in English began to hire foreign-trained Koreanists of Korean and non-Korean origin to teach classes. This was often geared towards foreigners in Korean graduate schools. There are now graduate school programs in Korean Studies (mostly active at the MA level) in most of the major Korean universities. BA programs in Korean Studies have now been opened at two Korean universities. The BA programs are distinctive in that they have few foreign students. * The

Academy of Korean Studies Academy of Korean Studies (한국학중앙연구원, AKS) is a South Korean research and educational institute with the purpose of establishing profound research on Korean culture. It was established on June 22, 1978, by Ministry of Education ...

(한국학중앙연구원, AKS) est.1978 * The

Korea Research Foundation The National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) was established in 2009 as a merger of Korea Science and Engineering Foundation (KOSEF), Korea Research Foundation (KRF), and Korea Foundation for International Cooperation of Science and Technolog ...

(한국학술진흥재단, KRF) est.1981 * The Korea Foundation (한국국제교류재단) est.1991. * The Advanced Center for Korean Studies (한국국학진흥원, ACKS) est.1995.

Debates in the Field

What exactly Korean Studies is, who is teaching it, who is learning, and what should be taught continues to be debated. There has been a small series of works debating Korean Studies published in academic journals. A sort of historical overview by Charles Armstrong titled "Development and Directions of Korean Studies in the United States" comes strongly from Armstrong's perspective teaching history at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, as his work: "Focusing on the discipline of history, ... traces the emergence of Korean Studies in the 1950s, the evolution of the field and the changing backgrounds of American scholars working on Korea in the 1960s to 1980s, and the rapid growth of Korean Studies since the early 1990s." Another historian, Andre Schmid published an early contribution to the debate in 2008, challenging the ways that English academia was pushing or shaping the directions of Korean Studies. Schmid explained, "In the unequal global cultural arena where English still dominates, the direction of Korean Studies in the United States disproportionately shapes international representations of Korean culture." University of Berkeley Sociologist John Lie contributed two pieces to the debate, the more recent of which challenged the Korean Studies, claiming "senior Koreanists seem rather content with their progress, telling their followers bizarre tales from the field and seeking to reproduce the archaic and mistaken Harvard East Asia paradigm." Lie discusses the weaknesses he sees in this paradigm for the remainder of the essay. In 2018 CedarBough T Saeji published an article in Acta Koreana bringing in the perspective of teaching Korean Studies in Korea, focusing on "1) the struggle to escape the nation-state boundaries implied in the habitual terminology, particularly when teaching in the ROK, where the country is unmarked (“Han’guk”), the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is marked (“Pukhan”), and the diaspora is rarely mentioned at all; 2) the implications of the expansion of Korean Studies as a major within the ROK; 3) in-class navigations of Korean national pride, the trap of Korean uniqueness and (self-)orientalization and attitudes toward the West."

Notable centers of Korean studies outside Korea

A-Z order *

Beijing Foreign Studies University Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU; ), is a public university in Beijing, China. BFSU boasts the oldest language programs in China offering the largest number of foreign language majors on different educational levels. Located in Haidi ...

— School of Asian and African Studies *

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teac ...

- School of East Asian Studies *

Curtin University Curtin University, formerly known as Curtin University of Technology and Western Australian Institute of Technology (WAIT), is an Australian public research university based in Bentley, Perth, Western Australia. It is named after John Curtin, P ...

Korea Research Centre of Western Australia
*

Freie Universität Berlin The Free University of Berlin (, often abbreviated as FU Berlin or simply FU) is a public research university in Berlin, Germany. It is consistently ranked among Germany's best universities, with particular strengths in political science and t ...

- Institute of Korean Studies *

George Washington University , mottoeng = "God is Our Trust" , established = , type = Private federally chartered research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.8 billion (2022) , presi ...

�
GW Institute for Korean Studies (GWIKS)
*

Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences The Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences (russian: Институт востоковедения Российской Академии Наук), formerly Institute of Oriental Studies of the USSR Academy of Sciences, ...

- Department of Korean and Mongolian Studie

*

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks among the top three ...

Centre for Korean Studies
*

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

�
Center for Korean Studies
*

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California S ...

�
Center for Korean Studies Le Centre de Recherches sur la Corée (CRC ou « Centre Corée ») de l’EHESS
*

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the ...

�
Center for East Asian Studies
*

�
Center for Korean Research
*

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...

�
Korea Institute
*

University of Hawaii A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United Stat ...

�
Center for Korean Studies
*

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. *Indiana Universit ...

East Asian Studies Center
http://www.indiana.edu/~iks/ Institute for Korean Studies] *

Indiana University Bloomington Indiana University Bloomington (IU Bloomington, Indiana University, IU, or simply Indiana) is a public research university in Bloomington, Indiana. It is the flagship campus of Indiana University and, with over 40,000 students, its largest cam ...

Center for Korean Studies
*

University of Leeds , mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased , established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds , t ...

Korea Research Hub, UK
Leeds *

Universiteit Leiden Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange, as a reward to the city of L ...

�
Korean Studies
*

Katholieke Universiteit Leuven KU Leuven (or Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) is a Catholic research university in the city of Leuven, Belgium. It conducts teaching, research, and services in computer science, engineering, natural sciences, theology, humanities, medicine, ...

(University of Leuven, KU Leuven)
Center for Korean Studies
* University of London School of Oriental and African Studies �
Centre of Korean Studies
*

Far Eastern Federal University Far Eastern Federal University (russian: Дальневосто́чный федера́льный университе́т, ''Dalnevostochny federalny universitet'') is a university located in Vladivostok, Primorsky Krai, Russia. In 2022 the u ...

�
Oriental Institute - School of Regional and International Studies
* Novosibirsk State Technical University �
Faculty of Humanities - International Affairs and Regional Studies
( *

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

�
Nam Center for Korean Studies
*

National Museum of Ethnology (Japan) The is one of the major museums in Japan. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"Museums"in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', pp. 671-673. It is Japan's largest research institute in the academic disciplines of humanities and social sciences, which was estab ...

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publi ...

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest- ...

�
James Joo-Jin Kim Program in Korean Studies
*

University of Sheffield , mottoeng = To discover the causes of things , established = – University of SheffieldPredecessor institutions: – Sheffield Medical School – Firth College – Sheffield Technical School – University College of Sheffield , type = P ...

— School of East Asian Studies * University of Central Lancashire �
International Institute of Korean Studies
* Tenri University — Department of Foreign Languages *

Tufts University Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learnin ...

The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy is the graduate school of international affairs of Tufts University, in Medford, Massachusetts. The School is one of America's oldest graduate schools of international relations and is well-ranked in i ...

�
Chair of Korean Studies
ref name="Lee 2017"/> *

University of Tokyo , abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project by ...

�
Department of Korean Studies
*

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

�
Centre for the Study of Korea
*

Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City Viet Nam National University Ho Chi Minh City (VNUHCM, vi, Đại học Quốc gia Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh) is one of the two largest national research universities in Vietnam (the other is Vietnam National University, Hanoi), founded on 27 ...

�
Faculty of Korean Studies, University of Social Sciences and Humanities
*

Vrije Universiteit Brussel The Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) () is a Dutch and English-speaking research university located in Brussels, Belgium.The Vrije Universiteit Brussel is one of the five universities officially recognised by the Flemish government. listof a ...

, Institute for European Studies �
KF-VUB Korea Chair
*

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle ...

Korea Studies Program, East Asia Studies, Henry M. Jackson School of International StudiesThe University of Western Australia
*

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the w ...

�
East Rock Institute

Korean Studies Programs in Korea

A-Z order *

- this is onl
a graduate school
with no undergraduate program * Dong-A University
Graduate School of International Studies
*

Ewha Womans University Ewha Womans University () is a private women's university in Seoul founded in 1886 by Mary F. Scranton under Emperor Gojong. It was the first university founded in South Korea. Currently, Ewha is one of the world's largest female educational in ...

- B.A. degree program
Scranton College, Division of International Studies, Department of Korean Studies
and M.A. degree program (Graduate School of International Studies, Department of Korean Studies) *

Hankuk University of Foreign Studies Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (abbreviated as HUFS; Korean: 한국외국어대학교) is a private research university based in Seoul, in South Korea. HUFS consistently ranks as one of the best universities in South Korea. The universit ...

�
Undergraduate program
and Graduate program *

Hanyang University Hanyang University (Korean: 한양대학교) is a private research university in South Korea. The main campus is located in Seoul and its satellite campus, the Education Research Industry Cluster (ERICA campus), is in Ansan. ''Hanyang'' (한양 ...

Graduate School of International Studies
* Korea University
Graduate School of International Studies
*

Pusan National University Pusan National University (PNU), also called Busan National University, is one of ten Flagship Korean National Universities in South Korea and second highest public universities in South Korea. Located mainly in Busan (or Pusan), the universi ...

Graduate School of International Studies
* Silla University �
Study in korea
* Sangmyung University
The Graduate School, Division of Humanities and Social sciences, Department of Korean Studies
*

Seoul National University Seoul National University (SNU; ) is a national public research university located in Seoul, South Korea. Founded in 1946, Seoul National University is largely considered the most prestigious university in South Korea; it is one of the three " ...

Graduate School of International Studies
*

Sogang University Sogang University (SU, Hangul: 서강대학교 Hanja: 西江大學校, literally "West River University") is one of the most prestigious private research universities in Seoul, South Korea. It was established in 1960 by the Wisconsin Province of ...

- Undergraduate and Graduate program of the School of Integrated Knowledg
Global Korean Studies
and Graduate progra

*

Yonsei University Yonsei University (; ) is a private research university in Seoul, South Korea. As a member of the " SKY" universities, Yonsei University is deemed one of the three most prestigious institutions in the country. It is particularly respected in t ...

Graduate School of International Studies

Academic Journals

*'' The Journal of Korean Studies'' (JKS) has just moved to George Washington University after stints at University of Washington and Columbia. *''

Korean Studies Korean studies is an academic discipline that focuses on the study of Korea, which includes the Republic of Korea, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, and diasporic Korean populations. Areas commonly included under this rubric include ...

'' (KS) University of Hawaii. *'' Korea Journal'' Formerly published by the Korean National Commission for UNESCO, Seoul, South Korea, this journal is now published by the Academy of Korean Studies. *'' Acta Koreana'' Keimyung University, Daegu. *''Chosen Gakuho: Journal of the Academic Association of Koreanology in Japan'', Tenri University. *''Korean Culture and Society'', Association for the Study of Korean Culture and Society. *
Routledge Research on Korea Series
'. *Korean and Korean American Studies Bulletin (KKASB). East Rock Institute

Associations for Korean Studies overseas

The Association for Korean Studies in Europe
(AKSE)
Association for the Study of Korean Culture and Society
(Japan)
British Association for Korean Studies
(BAKS)
Committee on Korean Studies of the Association for Asian Studies
(CKS)
Korean Studies Association of Australasia
(KSAA)

Koreanists

The term Koreanist generally indicates an academic scholar of Korean language, history, culture, society, music, art, literature, film, or any other subject who primarily publishes in a Western language. All such Koreanists are fluent in Korean and various other relevant research languages. Koreanists who have published at least one Western-language academic book include: *Archeology: Gina Barnes, Mark E. Byington, Hyung Il Pai. *Cinema: Andrew David Jackson, Kyung Hyun Kim. *Early Koreanists:

James Scarth Gale James S. Gale (February 19, 1863 – January 31, 1937; in modern Korean 제임스 스카스 게일, in old Sino-Korean characters 奇一 (기일)) was a Canadian Presbyterian missionary, educator and Bible translator in Korea. Early life Gale was ...

, William E. Skillend,

Richard Rutt Cecil Richard Rutt CBE (27 August 192527 July 2011) was an English Roman Catholic priest and a former Anglican bishop. Rutt spent almost 20 years of his life serving as an Anglican missionary in South Korea, a country for which he developed a ...

. *Fine arts: Burglind Jungmann, Maya K. H. Stiller. *Folklore, anthropology, and sociology: Hesung Chun Koh, Nancy Abelmann, Chungmoo Choi,

Martina Deuchler Martina Deuchler (born 1935 in Zurich) is a Swiss academic and author. She was a professor of Korean studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) from 1991 to 2001. Profile Martina Deuchler developed her interest in Korea by ...

, Stephen Epstein, Joanna Elfving-Hwang, Roger Janelli, Laurel Kendall, John Lie, Shimpei Cole Ota, Hyung Il Pai, Mutsuhiko Shima, Gi-Wook Shin. *History: Remco E. Breuker, Mark E. Byington, Mark E. Caprio, Yong-ho Ch'oe,

Bruce Cumings Bruce Cumings (born September 5, 1943) is an American historian of East Asia, professor, lecturer and author. He is the Gustavus F. and Ann M. Swift Distinguished Service Professor in History, and the former chair of the history department at ...

, John B. Duncan, Carter J. Eckert, Kyung Moon Hwang, Andrew David Jackson, Hugh H. W. Kang, Anders Karlsson, Nan Kim, Kirk W. Larsen, Namhee Lee, James B. Lewis, Christopher Lovins, Yumi Moon, James B. Palais, N. M. Pankaj, Eugene Y. Park, Mark A. Peterson, Kenneth R. Robinson, Michael Robinson, Edward J. Shultz, Felix Siegmund, Vladimir Tikhonov, Edward W. Wagner. *International relations: Victor D. Cha, Stephan Haggard, David C. Kang, Sung-Yoon Lee. *International Law: Kwang Lim Koh *Language and literature: Yang Hi Choe-Wall, Kyeong-Hee Choi, Marion Eggert, Gregory N. Evon, Bruce Fulton, JaHyun Kim Haboush, Christopher Hanscom, Ross King, Peter H. Lee, David R. McCann, Michael J. Pettid, Marshall Pihl, Youngjoo Ryu, Serk-Bae Suh, Brother Anthony of Taize. *North Korea: Charles K. Armstrong, Suzy Kim, Andrei Lankov, Nina Špitálníková. *Performing arts: Keith Howard, Hwang Byungki, Lee Byongwon, Lee Duhyon, Lee Hye-ku, Roald Maliangkay, CedarBough T. Saeji. *Philosophy and religion: Juhn Y. Ahn, Don Baker, Robert Buswell Jr., Donald N. Clark, James H. Grayson, Michael Kalton, Daeyeol Kim, Hwansoo Ilmee Kim, N. M. Pankaj, Jin Y. Park, Franklin D. Rausch, Isabelle Sancho, Sem Vermeersch, Boudewijn Walraven.

References

External links

The Korea Foundation
Seoul 한국국제교류재단
krf.or.kr
The

한국학술진흥재단
Academy of Korean Studies
Seoul an
Korean Studies Net
한국학중앙연구원
Korean Studies Portal 한국학 포털 (Frank Hoffmann)Yuldo.net: A Korean Studies Site

Seoul National University Kyujanggak Institute for Korean Studies official websiteSilla University oia
Busan Office of International Affairs of Silla University *
Kyujanggak Archive Search
{{DEFAULTSORT:Korean Studies Korean culture