Talk:Korean studies

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[edit] growing pains, difficulties with funding, direction

Perhaps somebody can give their opinion. I think the article could use a historical section. Korean Studies began to expand in the mid-1990s and large Chaebol invested a substantial amount of money toward the creation of academic programmes outside of Korea and funded professors chairs, etc. However, the growth in Korean Studies that comes out of the mid-1990s was hopelessly biased toward 'the Korean problem', modern politics, modern industrialization, 'miracle-on the-Han', etc at the expense of important topics such as Buddhist and religious studies, archaeology, women's studies, and others. Also, many of the new or expanded academic programmes devloped in strange ways that are counter to the spirit of university learning and research. Bitter misunderstandings of what Korean Studies is/should do have developed between Korean Studies academics and local Korean overseas communities.

The IMF 시대 ushered in a difficult time for Korean Studies, and I don't really see that the discipline has fully recovered. Large Korean multinational corporations that used to give generously to Korean Studies had to sharply curtail such activities. I think that the KF's budget was significantly slashed. There have been a number of problems in overseas universities related to the continued funding (e.g. Durham University is a high profile case). In fact, there are more clouds on the horizon. The government of Noh Mu-hyeon made a stunning announcement in 2005 that it intended to move the Korea Foundation offices to far-off JEJU-DO. I wonder what impact this will have on Korean Studies because the KF is the main funding agency.

Finally, it seems that there isn't been much of a long-term plan on how to develop Korean Studies as a viable discipline. The KF and AKS are wonderful organisations. They do an excellent job with their facilities and resources, but they cannot do everything. It seems to me that some big-wig in the central government of Roh Tae-woo had a vision of a Korean Studies that could rival Japanese Studies and spread knowledge about Korean Civilization across the globe. This is a desirable thing for all of us, but it seems to me that the planning stopped there. Large Korean multinational corporations need to reinvest in Korean Studies, but they need to hold the money back until some firm plans are made about how to do things right and in a sustainable fashion. One of the ways to do things right is to re-define what is meant by Korean Studies so that a wider variety of academic pursuits are included and feel welcome.

I have only mentioned a few challenges here. Some of my opinions are in conflict with NPOV but please tell me if you think any of this stuff should be included in the article. Mumun 17:20, 10 December 2006 (UTC)