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Religious Studies Department

Korean Studies Center at George Mason University

The Korean Studies Center is to be established in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences to support academic programs in Korean studies and related areas, teach Korean language, literature, culture, religion, and society. The Center will sponsor academic activities including scholarly conferences and publications on Korean affairs. It will also initiate and organize cultural events including the performing and visual arts of Korea. The Center will coordinate exchange programs between the students and faculty members of George Mason University and that of the universities and colleges in Korea, and it will administer a limited number of visiting scholars from Korea.

Why Korean Studies Center at George Mason University?

George Mason University is located in close proximity to the nation’s capital, Washington, D.C., and in the rapidly growing Korean-American community in Northern Virginia. The proposed center will provide a critical service in promoting mutual understanding between Korea and the United States by engaging in academic activities, scholarly research, and cultural events relating to Korea. The center will be able to utilize diverse resources such as various think tanks and libraries including the Library of Congress to enhance research on various aspects of Korea, including culture, economy, politics, religion, arts, and society.

The center will provide an important venue for Korean studies emphasizing interdisciplinary and cross-cultural interaction between George Mason and the Korean community in the region. The center will form a bridge between the university and the Korean-American community in encouraging the Korean-American community to participate in the life of the university and to support the university. By the same token, the university will provide assistance to the Korean-American community in offering unique opportunities, professional skills, facilities, and other resources of the university to educate and train Korean-Americans who need such knowledge, skills, training, and cultural enrichment.

The center will also serve students at GMU by offering courses in Korean language, literature, religion, society, history, and culture at George Mason University. The number of Korean students including Korean Americans from the local area is now approaching 1000 at George Mason University. The student body generally will benefit by studying the vital language and culture of Korea, as well as studying that nation as part of Asian and global studies concentrations. Korean language courses are the most urgent at the moment. The center will help develop gradually a Korean studies minor and major, and graduate courses relating Korean culture and society at George Mason University.

Previous Activities

George Mason University has sponsored or hosted three conferences on issues directly related to Korea, and each of these conferences was successful exceeding the expectations of the organizers: In April of 1998, right after the Asian financial crisis, George Mason University organized a conference to analyze the relationship between Confucian Values and Korean Financial Crisis. This conference was co-sponsored by the Center for Public Choice and the Center for Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (CAPEC) at Mason, and Korea Economic Institute in Washington D.C. The speakers included James Buchanan, the Nobel Laureate in Economics in 1987 and Tu Weiming, Harvard’s Yenching Institute Director. This conference, which was held at Dewberry Hall, was extremely successful in both quality and quantity. The papers presented at this conference were published in a journal, Korean Studies Review (Spring, 1999).

In October of 2002, GMU organized a conference on the Status of Economy in North Korea co-sponsored by the George Mason Association for Korean Studies (unofficial scholarly organization to support Korean studies at GMU), CAPEC, Korea International Trade Association, and Korea Economic Institute. This conference was also enormously successful drawing an audience of approximately 100 including specialists from various research centers and the World Bank in Washington, D.C.

Most recently GMU also hosted a very successful conference on Korean Nationalism on November 28, 2005. This conference tried to emphasize the interdisciplinary and cross-cultural aspect of Korean studies. The conference was also very successful attracting about 100 people including faculty, students at GMU and outside specialists in Korean affairs. At the evening dinner reception after the conference, GMU President Dr. Allan Merten and Korean Ambassador to the United States, Mr. Tae Sik Lee made special appearances and speeches in support of Korean Studies at George Mason University.

External Constituencies

Korean American community in the Washington area, especially in Northern Virginia is growing rapidly and the Korean American community will be a significant supporter for the Center and its activities.

Principal Faculty Members

Jeff Chamberlain, Chair, Modern and Classical Language
Yoonmi Chang, Assistant Professor of English
Elizabeth Chong, Associate Professor of Nursing and Health Science
Hun Lee, Associate Professor of Management
John Paden, Robinson Professor and Director of Center for Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation
Young-chan Ro, Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Chair of Religious Studies
Yong J. Yoon, Associate Professor of Economics, Center for Public Choice

Director

Young-chan Ro, Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Chair, Religious Studies, will serve three year term.

Potential collaborations and partnerships

Center for Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (CAPEC)
Since there is no center or institute directly deals with Korean issues and matters, CAPEC has been a vital instrument in providing the role. As a member of the CAPEC committee, I have been assisting and advising matters concerning Korea since the inception of the CAPEC at GMU, including the Korean visiting scholars program, organizing President Merten’s visit to Korea in the fall of 2004, and co-sponsoring the aforementioned three scholarly conferences at GMU. CAPEC and the Korean Studies Center will be able to cooperate on matters concerning Korea including the visiting scholars program, co-sponsoring conferences, seminars, and workshop.

Center for Public Choice
The Center for Public Choice has helped in sponsoring seminars and conferences in relation to the social and economic issues of Korea, including the conference in 1998 on the Korean financial crisis. The Korean Studies Center will continue to cooperate with the Center for Public Choice including visiting scholars from Korea, and scholarly activities with a Korean focus.

Department of Modern and Classical Languages
The Center will support Korean language courses and other related courses offered in the Department of Modern and Classical Language.

Department of Religious Studies
The Department will work closely with the Center in offering courses in Korean traditional religions and culture and sponsoring academic and scholarly activities on Korean culture and religion.

Department of History and Art History
The Department will work closely with the Center in offering course in Korean history and art history, and sponsoring cultural and academic activities relating to Korea. There will be several other agencies and centers at GMU and in the Washington area will be able to collaborate with the Center.

The Center will be supported by mostly external grants from Korean community including Korean American business leaders, from Korea Foundation, other funding agencies, and matching grant from the State. At the moment, the Center has raised $40,000 to start Korean language and literature courses scheduled to be offered in the fall of 2006.

The center will make an annual report and evaluation of its program and finance to the Dean of College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences. The assessment will be based on the following criteria:

Organizing and Sponsoring Scholarly Conferences

• Administering visiting scholars from Korea including regular colloquia and advising their research projects
• Sponsoring cultural events such as Korean traditional music, visual arts, dance, etc.
• Organizing and sponsoring other activities deem to appropriate for enhancing the relationship between Korean-American community and George Mason University
• Publication of scholarly articles either in a journal form or in a series of single volume
• Supporting Korean courses including language, literature, religion, history, society, culture offered in various departments at George Mason University

The Center may not be able to accomplish all the above mentioned activities in the initial first three years. However, it will concentrate on two or three out of the listed activities.