The 3rd World Congress of Korean Studies

Via the Korean Studies list, a call for papers for The 3rd World Congress of Korean Studies on October 27-30, 2006 in Cheju National University in Jeju. (Yes, that's Cheju university in Jeju, just like Pusan film festival in Busan or Puchon film festival in Buchon) New phenomenon of cultural exchange called ‘Korean Wave’ has recently emerged across the world. However, there has been a stream of cultural exchanges with foreign countries throughout Korean history indeed. Academic discussions in the congress are expected to deepen our understanding of the background, stages, patterns, and influence of the cultural interactions, which will ultimately contribute to the promotion of mutual understanding and collaboration in the global community. All good, but one can't help smiling when seeing the contact email address, lovekorea@aks[...]. Seems that the mail id has been created for this conference alone. Sure we all love Korea, and no one's surprised that a government-funded organization is there to further the policy goals of the funding government, but shouldn't there be at least a clout of seriousness? Or perhaps it's me who's being too serious here. Only that it doesn't seem likely that the folks at Academy of Korean Studies (AKS) had been ironic when choosing the id. At least it's not koreapia@[...] The conference itself will surely be a fine event, even though ;) I won't be able to attend. There doesn't seem to be any DPRK involvement this time, which I must tell is fortunate, considering the experiences from the 2nd "world" congress of Korean Studies which took place in Pyongyang in 2004. DPRK refused the entry of ROK scholars and the agreed co-sponsorship of the AKS on the pretext of some political thing, which made AKS and other non-DPRK organizations to withdraw (see Dr Leonid Petrov's homepage for more details). What's the point in cooperation if the DPRK presence puts limits on conference topics, or when a reasonable view on DPRK is met with accusations of insulting the Dear Leader and other abuse. Categories at del.icio.us/hunjang: academicㆍKoreanstudiesㆍDPRK