The 1st World Congress of Korean Studies Will Begin Tomorrow

The Academy of Korean Studies (Director: Jang Eul-byeong) will hold ‘The 1st World Congress of Korean Studies’ from July 18 through July 20. As the Academy of Korean Studies jointly sponsored this congress with Association for Korean Studies in Europe, Korean Studies Association of Australasia, International Society for Korean Studies, and CAAKS, it covered all forums of Korean Studies. Korean Studies Association of the Rim of the Pacific, which held the conference in Seoul last month, doesn’t participate in this congress because it was already planned one year ago.

The subject of the 1st World Congress of Korean Studies is ‘Foreign culture in Korean culture, Korean culture in foreign culture’. Including Werner Sasse (president of Association for Korean Studies in Europe), Martina Deuchler (professor of University

of London), and Kim Jin-Woo (professor of University of Illinois) 150 scholars of Korean Studies from 23 countries participate.

The congress is progressed with a discussion by 10 sections of history, literature, religion, art, North Korea and so on and with the free discussion. James H. Grayson, the professor of Univ. of Sheffield, London announces a treatise on ‘Structural study on consecration spread of Buddhism’. Alexander Zhebin, the researcher of the research institute of the East Asian Studies in Russia announces the paper of ‘Tradition and modernization of the North Korea’, and Helga Picht announces the treatise of ‘World Literature and Park Kyeong-ri’.

Jang Eul-byeong said “Through this congress, we desire to expand the Korean Studies of Local studies to the Korea into the World. Due to the naval battle in Yellow Sea, scholars of the North Korea don’t participate, but we are in the middle of planning the 2nd congress in Pyeongyang next year”.

The Academy of Korean Studies has the special exhibition for mementos (76 kinds, 126 books) in Jangseogak, including the Thousand-Character Text, books and maps, which were used in Chosun, in a lobby of Jangseogak until August 9 as a supplementary event. For more information about this congress, contact to the homepage (www.aks.ac.kr) of The Academy of Korean Studies or call to 031-709-9843.

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