AAS Annual Conference 2024
KF Korean Studies Reception

Friday, March 15, 2024, 7:30–9:30p.m.
Seattle Sheraton Hotel, Ballroom A

Welcoming Remarks
Amb. KIM Gheewhan
President of the Korea Foundation

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen:

I am Gheewhan Kim, President of the Korea Foundation. It is great to meet you all again, following last year’s event in Boston. I welcome all of you to 2024 KF Korean Studies Reception.

I want to say my most sincere greetings to Korean Studies scholars and to congratulate Professor Hyaeweol Choi on her election as President of Association for Asian Studies. This is a good news as well as a positive sign that the Korean studies are playing greater roles in the Asian Studies, overall, in the United States and Canada.

I highly respect and appreciate the passion and dedication of Korean studies professors, for their ongoing special efforts to expand and deepen the Korean Studies in North America.

Korea is now known as one of leading democracies with advanced technologies and industries. Korea is firmly committed to common universal values, including freedom, human rights, protection of environment, rule of law, and basic democratic values.

In recent years, we are watching a rise of 한류, “Korean Wave”, covering pop music, drama, movie, food and beauty products. Now Korea is increasingly reputed, as a country of attractive soft power.

According to a report published by the Modern Language Association of America in 2021, enrollments in Korean language classes in 2021 had increased 40 percent, compared to 2016.

This is the most significant increase among all languages, while enrollments in other languages, such as French and German, have decreased.

This trend is mirrored in higher education, with an additional 29 institutions in the United States introducing Korean language courses.

Out of a total of 161 professor positions for Korean studies that the KF have established around the world, 110 professors are present in North America, 99 in the US and 11 in Canada.

As global interest in Korea builds up, Korean Studies are meeting greater opportunities not only to strengthen current subjects of language, literature, history, sociology, anthropology, and other subjects of humanities and social sciences, but also to extend rapidly into the new subject areas based on new demands for exchanges in arts and culture, science and technologies, covering all academic subjects for Korean Studies.

In the United States and Canada, KF keeps providing support and strengthening focus on the Midwest, Northwest, and the Southern states, where Korean Studies programs are relatively recent, so that we can reduce disparities between regions and states in the United States and Canada.

KF will keep assisting Korean Studies universities to expand collaboration networks and clusters so that they can benefit and support each other.

A good example is the BTAA Global e-school Program in the Midwest, which is led by the Nam Center for Korean Studies at the University of Michigan.

At the same time, KF has begun increasing efforts to meet the new demand for Korean language, information on Korea, therefore to strengthen Korean studies in the regions and states, where Korean companies have strong presence.

STEM, Art and Culture are becoming popular “Korea” subjects, as cooperation and exchanges with Korea on these subjects are considered increasingly important these days.

(Closing)
KF will keep furthering Korean studies and supporting next generation scholars, who will carry out this important work together.

In closing, I want to say my most sincere thank you to all Korean studies professors for your dedication and excellent contributions.

Thank you.