FSI researchers work to understand continuity and change in societies as they confront their problems and opportunities. This includes the implications of migration and human trafficking. What happens to a society when young girls exit the sex trade? How do groups moving between locations impact societies, economies, self-identity and citizenship? What are the ethnic challenges faced by an increasingly diverse European Union? From a policy perspective, scholars also work to investigate the consequences of security-related measures for society and its values.
The Europe Center reflects much of FSI’s agenda of investigating societies, serving as a forum for experts to research the cultures, religions and people of Europe. The Center sponsors several seminars and lectures, as well as visiting scholars.
Societal research also addresses issues of demography and aging, such as the social and economic challenges of providing health care for an aging population. How do older adults make decisions, and what societal tools need to be in place to ensure the resulting decisions are well-informed? FSI regularly brings in international scholars to look at these issues. They discuss how adults care for their older parents in rural China as well as the economic aspects of aging populations in China and India.
Imperial Korea’s Western Capital (Sŏgyŏng): The Pyongyang Development Project, 1902-08
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Except for specialists working on the period, the Korean Empire's (1897–1910) project to develop Pyongyang as the "Western Capital" (Sŏgyŏng) is not all that well known even among Korea historians. From the perspective of international relations, there can be no doubt that the Russo-Japanese War sealed independent Korea’s fate. All the same, in the last two decades or so, Korea’s own effort toward modernization has received more attention among historians who no longer dismiss the history of the Korean Empire as the tail end of the Chosŏn Dynasty. For sure, the official rhetoric that empires old and new have had two capitals conceals imperial Korea’s self-perceptions about its place in the civilized world of the past, the present, and the future. Moreover, scrutiny of the circumstances in which the government undertook the project before it came to a halt allows insight into the Korean Empire’s understanding of geopolitical realities at the time.
Eugene Y. Park is the Korea Foundation Associate Professor in History in the School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. He is also the director of Penn's Korean Studies Program. Dr. Park completed his doctorate in East Asian languages and civilizations at Harvard in 1999 and has received numerous research grants and fellowships, including: a 2007–08 Seoul National University Kyujanggak Institute for Korean Studies Fellowship; a 2003–04 Korea Foundation Advanced Research Grant; a 1999–2000 Yale University Council on East Asian Studies Postdoctoral Fellowship; a 1996–97 Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship; and a 1995–96 Fulbright Fellowship. His research interests focus on the sociopolitical history of early modern Korea, and his current work examines the chungin ("middle people") to address questions of modernity, identities, and agency. His book, Between Dreams and Reality: The Military Examination in Late Chosŏn Korea, 1600–1894, was published by the Harvard University Asia Center in 2007. He has published chapters and articles in venues such as Journal of Social History and Yŏksa wa hyŏnsil.
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Eugene Y. Park
Korea Foundation Associate Professor
Speaker
University of Pennsylvania
Seminars
Struggling Every Day: The Domestication of Emancipatory Narratives in Early South Korean History
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Narratives of emancipatory struggle have occupied a privileged position in modern Korean nationalist discourse since the start of the twentieth century. Historians have not yet delved fully into the production and impact of emancipation narratives in modern Korea. This talk examines the transposition of this venerable anti-colonial narrative frame to South Korean political and public discourse during and after the student protests of April 19, 1960. The postcolonializing of emancipatory stories at this critical juncture has profoundly shaped the nation’s politics and culture in subsequent decades.
Charles Kim is an assistant professor of modern Korean history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research interests include nationalism, narrative, popular culture, and historical memory. At present, he is at work on a project that explores the post-colonial reconfiguration of Korean nationalist discourse in and through the seminal event of April 19th. He holds a PhD from Columbia University, an MA from UCLA, and a BA from Pomona College.
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Charles Kim
Assistant Professor, Modern Korean History, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Speaker
Seminars
Chosŏn Renaissance: The Decolonization of Public Space in Contemporary Seoul
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This lecture will discuss the re-creation of public spaces in contemporary Seoul, analyzed as a long-term and contested process of decolonization in the wake of 35 years of Japanese rule (1910–45). Through an opening discussion of Namsan (South Mountain), Dr. Henry will show that the recreation of the city’s colonial spaces began quickly after liberation with the erasure of Chōsen Shrine, perhaps the most violent symbol of wartime "imperialization" (1937–1945), and its subsequent replacement with various nationalist monuments, including a memorial to the turn-of-the-century martyr Ahn Chung-gŭn (1879–1910). "Chosŏn renaissance" is the term that he has coined to capture the most recent manifestations of a decolonizing project that re-imagines Korea's last dynasty as national glory. Dr. Henry’s discussion of the ongoing restoration of Kyŏngbok Palace, once the site of the Government-General building and various colonial period expositions, will demonstrate how this monument has come to serve as Seoul's showpiece for promoting South Korean patriotism and "tradition," albeit without directly referencing the country’s tumultuous modern history. Like the newly restored Chŏnggye Stream and the recent installation of a plaza and statue memorializing King Sejong (r. 1418–50), the restoration of Kyŏngbok Palace, a project that will not be completed until 2030, aims to remind South Korean citizens and international visitors of the illustrious and independent history of the peninsula before the onset of Japanese rule and four decades of post-colonial authoritarianism.
Dr. Henry (Ph.D., UCLA, 2006) is a specialist on modern Korea with a focus on the period of Japanese rule (1910–1945). He works on the comparative and transnational study of imperialism/colonialism, gender/sexuality, and critical urban studies. He is currently completing a book manuscript which examines the intersection of space and power in the city of colonial Seoul.
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Todd A. Henry
Assistant Professor in Residence, Department of History, University of California, San Diego
Speaker
Seminars
Celebrating ten years of Korean studies at Stanford
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"I would like to invite my colleagues, students, friends, and supporters to celebrate what we have worked together to achieve over the last decade and I ask you all to join me in continuing this record of achievement in the decade to come."
Gi-Wook Shin
Stanford KSP Director
Gi-Wook Shin came from the University of California, Los Angeles to Stanford University in 2001 to establish a program in Korean studies. "Naturally, I had mixed feelings—of excitement and hope, but also of anxiety and uncertainty," says Shin. "Looking back, I made the right decision." The Stanford Korean Studies Program (KSP), today a thriving and vibrant program at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC), recently held a series of major events to celebrate its tenth anniversary in February 2011.
Stanford KSP is unique among other Korean studies programs in its interdisciplinary, social science-based research focus on contemporary Korea. The U.S.-Korea relationship, particularly policy issues, is strongly emphasized in the program's research and publishing activities. Stanford KSP is instrumental in the success of Shorenstein APARC's two initiatives—the Korea-U.S. West Coast Strategic Forum and the New Beginnings policy study group—aimed at improving policy-making decisions in the two countries.
The program is grateful for the strong and generous support it has received from individuals, corporations, and foundations since the very beginning. In 1999, an endowment was established for the professorship that Shin holds, the Tong Yang, Korea Foundation, and Korea Stanford Alumni Chair of Korean Studies, which was followed closely by funding for two more Korea chairs. In 2004, Dr. Jeong H. and Cynthia Kim provided funding to establish a professorship named after former U.S. Secretary of Defense William J. Perry. Dr. Kim is President of Bell Labs at Alcatel-Lucent and a member of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies Advisory Board. A search is currently underway to fill this important position. The Korea Foundation then donated funds in 2005 to establish a third professorship, which is currently held by Yumi Moon of the Department of History.
Stanford KSP has successfully established two annual professional fellowship
programs, the Pantech Fellowship for Mid-Career Professionals and the Koret
Fellowship, something unparalleled by other Korean studies programs. The
program's faculty, fellows, and visiting scholars—most of whom teach courses and
speak at public events—greatly contribute to the intellectual vigor of the Stanford
community. Paul Y. Chang, PhD '08, an assistant professor at Yonsei
University's Underwood International College, says, "The program provided the ideal context to
engage with passionate scholars and develop my research program."
Stanford KSP's visitors find themselves, in turn, rewarded by the experience of
being at Shorenstein APARC. Former Korean Minister of Unification Jongseok Lee,
a visiting scholar from 2008 to 2009, says, "While enjoying every bit of life at Stanford . . . I worked hard in the
office from early morning to late evening, as if I were a graduate student
preparing his final dissertation . . . It was a truly meaningful and memorable
year." Stanford KSP maintains strong ties with its former students,
fellows, visiting scholars, and other affiliates, in part through the Stanford
Shorenstein APARC Forum in Korea, an organization that has grown since 2003 to
boast a roster of over 100 members.
In addition to the interaction with Stanford
KSP's faculty and visitors, Stanford students benefit greatly from numerous social
science and language courses, internship and overseas seminar opportunities,
and the ever-growing Korean-language library collection supported by the
program. Social science courses cover such topics as the Korean economy, the
politics of the Korean Peninsula, modern Korean history, and many others.
Through the Stanford Language Center, students may take a rigorous,
comprehensive offering of beginning- through advanced-level Korean-language
courses. An internship program
co-sponsored with the Center for East Asian Studies provides students with the
valuable opportunity to live and work in Korea each summer. Since its
establishment in 2005, Stanford's Korean-language library collection has expanded
to include a total of 41,300 print volumes and 13 electronic databases.
On an annual basis, Stanford KSP offers innovative and impactful programs
addressing current, policy-relevant issues and events, as well as historical
factors with contemporary relevance, that are shaping the future of the Korean
Peninsula and the U.S.-Korea relationship. Conferences and workshops bring together leading Korea
scholars with policymakers and other subject experts, including business leaders and international
journalists, for productive and meaningful dialogue, research, and publishing activities. Stanford KSP's popular,
long-time seminar series and
special events afford members of the Stanford community and the general public
the opportunity to listen to and
engage with distinguished political figures and prominent scholars.
Stanford KSP celebrated its tenth anniversary on February 23 with a special
public seminar examining the state and prospects of science, technology, and
economics in Korea and Northeast Asia. The next
day, it held its annual Koret Conference, a major event bringing
together prominent Korea experts to discuss the future of North Korea. The
anniversary activities concluded that evening with a dinner and reception
to honor the generosity of Stanford KSP's long-time donors.
Proud of the program's accomplishments to date and optimistic about the future,
Shin says, "I would like to invite my colleagues, students, friends, and
supporters to celebrate what we have worked together to achieve over the last decade
and I ask you all to join me in continuing this record of achievement in the
decade to come."
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Shorenstein APARC Center Overview 2009-2010
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Shorenstein APARC's center overviews provide detailed information about Shorenstein APARC's mission, history, faculty, financial support, organizational structure, projects, and programs.
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Shorenstein APARC
DPRK 2012
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The 3rd Koret conference will convene to address issues confronting North Korea in four areas: domestic politics; the economy; relations with neighbors; and scenarios of possible change in North Korea in comparative perspective.
This workshop is supported by a generous grant from the Koret Foundation.
Bechtel Conference Center
Sang-Hun Choe
Shorenstein APARC
Stanford University
Encina Hall, Room C333
Stanford, CA 94305-6055
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shchoe@stanford.edu
2010-2011 Fellow in Korean Studies
A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Mr. Choe, has written extensively on United States-Korea relations for the international news media, including the Associated Press and The International Herald Tribune, the international version of The New York Times, where he currently serves as a correspondent. While at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, Mr. Choe will analyze the perspective of U.S. experts focusing on issues concerning South Korea's government, media, and society.
John Everard
No longer in residence.
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2010-2011 Pantech Fellow
John Everard, a retired British diplomat, is now a consultant for the UN.
In October 2006, only a few short months after Everard arrived in Pyongyang to serve as the British ambassador, North Korea conducted its first-ever nuclear test. Everard spent the next two-and-a-half years meeting with North Korean government officials and attending the official events so beloved by the North Korean regime. During this complicated period he provided crucial reports back to the British government on political developments.
He also traveled extensively throughout North Korea, witnessing scenes of daily life experienced by few foreigners: people shopping for food in Pyongyang’s informal street markets, urban residents taking time off to relax at the beach, and many other very human moments. Everard captured such snapshots of everyday life through dozens of photographs and detailed notes.
His distinguished career with the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office spanned nearly 30 years and four continents (Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America), and included a number of politically sensitive posts. As the youngest-ever British ambassador when he was appointed to Belarus (1993 to 1995), he built an embassy from the ground up just a few short years after the fall of the Soviet Union. He also skillfully managed diplomatic relations as the UK ambassador to Uruguay (2001 to 2005) during a period of economic crisis and the country’s election of its first left-wing government.
From 2010 to 2011 Everard spent one year at Stanford University’s Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, conducting research, writing, and participating in major international conferences on North Korea.
He holds BA and MA degrees in Chinese from Emmanuel College at Cambridge University, and a diploma in economics from Beijing University. Everard also earned an MBA from Manchester Business School, and is proficient in Chinese, Spanish, German, Russian, and French.
An avid cyclist and volunteer, Everard enjoys biking whenever he has the opportunity. He has been known to cycle from his London home to provincial cities to attend meetings of the Youth Hostels Association of England and Wales, of which he was a trustee from 2009 to 2010.
Everard currently resides with his wife in New York City.
Pantech Fellowships, generously funded by Pantech Group of Korea, are intended to cultivate a diverse international community of scholars and professionals committed to and capable of grappling with challenges posed by developments in Korea. We invite individuals from the United States, Korea, and other countries to apply.
Gi-Wook Shin
Shorenstein APARC
Encina Hall E301
616 Jane Stanford Way
Stanford, CA 94305-6055
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gwshin@stanford.edu
Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
Professor of Sociology
William J. Perry Professor of Contemporary Korea
Professor, by Courtesy, of East Asian Languages & Cultures
Gi-Wook Shin is the William J. Perry Professor of Contemporary Korea in the Department of Sociology, senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, and the founding director of the Korea Program at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) since 2001, all at Stanford University. In May 2024, Shin also launched the Taiwan Program at APARC. He served as director of APARC for two decades (2005-2025). As a historical-comparative and political sociologist, his research has concentrated on social movements, nationalism, development, democracy, migration, and international relations.
In Summer 2023, Shin launched the Stanford Next Asia Policy Lab (SNAPL), which is a new research initiative committed to addressing emergent social, cultural, economic, and political challenges in Asia. Across four research themes– “Talent Flows and Development,” “Nationalism and Racism,” “U.S.-Asia Relations,” and “Democratic Crisis and Reform”–the lab brings scholars and students to produce interdisciplinary, problem-oriented, policy-relevant, and comparative studies and publications. Shin’s latest book, The Four Talent Giants, a comparative study of talent strategies of Japan, Australia, China, and India to be published by Stanford University Press in the summer of 2025, is an outcome of SNAPL.
Shin is also the author/editor of twenty-seven books and numerous articles. His books include The Four Talent Giants: National Strategies for Human Resource Development Across Japan, Australia, China, and India (2025); Korean Democracy in Crisis: The Threat of Illiberalism, Populism, and Polarization (2022); The North Korean Conundrum: Balancing Human Rights and Nuclear Security (2021); Superficial Korea (2017); Divergent Memories: Opinion Leaders and the Asia-Pacific War (2016); Global Talent: Skilled Labor as Social Capital in Korea (2015); Criminality, Collaboration, and Reconciliation: Europe and Asia Confronts the Memory of World War II (2014); New Challenges for Maturing Democracies in Korea and Taiwan (2014); History Textbooks and the Wars in Asia: Divided Memories (2011); South Korean Social Movements: From Democracy to Civil Society (2011); One Alliance, Two Lenses: U.S.-Korea Relations in a New Era (2010); Cross Currents: Regionalism and Nationalism in Northeast Asia (2007); and Ethnic Nationalism in Korea: Genealogy, Politics, and Legacy (2006). Due to the wide popularity of his publications, many have been translated and distributed to Korean audiences. His articles have appeared in academic and policy journals, including American Journal of Sociology, World Development, Comparative Studies in Society and History, Political Science Quarterly, Journal of Asian Studies, Comparative Education, International Sociology, Nations and Nationalism, Pacific Affairs, Asian Survey, Journal of Democracy, and Foreign Affairs.
Shin is not only the recipient of numerous grants and fellowships, but also continues to actively raise funds for Korean/Asian studies at Stanford. He gives frequent lectures and seminars on topics ranging from Korean nationalism and politics to Korea's foreign relations, historical reconciliation in Northeast Asia, and talent strategies. He serves on councils and advisory boards in the United States and South Korea and promotes policy dialogue between the two allies. He regularly writes op-eds and gives interviews to the media in both Korean and English.
Before joining Stanford in 2001, Shin taught at the University of Iowa (1991-94) and the University of California, Los Angeles (1994-2001). After receiving his BA from Yonsei University in Korea, he was awarded his MA and PhD from the University of Washington in 1991.
Stanford Next Asia Policy Lab (SNAPL)
Explore SNAPLDirector, Korea Program at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC)
Director, Stanford Next Asia Policy Lab at APARC
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Hyong O Kim
Representative and former Speaker of Korean National Assembly
Speaker
Michael H. Armacost
Shorenstein Distinguished Fellow, Shorenstein APARC
Speaker
Hakjoon Kim
Distinguished Visiting Professor, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)
Speaker
Yuhwan Koh
Shorenstein APARC
Stanford University
Encina Hall, Room E317
Stanford, CA 94305-6055
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yhkoh@stanford.edu
2010-2011 Visiting Scholar
Yuhwan Koh is a professor of North Korean Studies and director of the Institute of North Korea, Dongguk University, Seoul, Korea. He is also a policy advisor for the Ministry of Unification, and an active member of the Presidential Committee on Social Cohesion, Korea. His research interest is in North Korean issues, particularly in the institutionalization of the Military-First system, political changes and succession. He received B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. in Political Science from Dongguk University.
Sandra Fahy
Post-Doctoral Fellow, Korean Studies Institute, University of Southern California
Speaker
Hyug-Baeg Im
Professor, Korea University
Speaker
Soo-gil Park
President, World Federation of United Nations Associations
Commentator
Taeho Bark
Professor, Seoul National University
Speaker
William Newcomb
Consultant, formerly with State Department
Speaker
Andrew Natsios
Distinguished Professor, Georgetown University
Speaker
Byongwon Bahk
former Koret Fellow (2009-2010) and former Vice Finance Minister
Speaker
Daniel C. Sneider
Associate Director of Research, Shorenstein APARC
Speaker
Dai-Chul Chyung
former Korean National Assembly Member
Moderator
David Straub
No longer in residence.
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Associate Director of the Korea Program
David Straub was named associate director of the Korea Program at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) on July 1, 2008. Prior to that he was a 2007–08 Pantech Fellow at the Center. Straub is the author of the book, Anti-Americanism in Democratizing South Korea, published in 2015.
An educator and commentator on current Northeast Asian affairs, Straub retired in 2006 from his role as a U.S. Department of State senior foreign service officer after a 30-year career focused on Northeast Asian affairs. He worked over 12 years on Korean affairs, first arriving in Seoul in 1979.
Straub served as head of the political section at the U.S. embassy in Seoul from 1999 to 2002 during popular protests against the United States, and he played a key working-level role in the Six-Party Talks on North Korea's nuclear program as the State Department's Korea country desk director from 2002 to 2004. He also served eight years at the U.S. embassy in Japan. His final assignment was as the State Department's Japan country desk director from 2004 to 2006, when he was co-leader of the U.S. delegation to talks with Japan on the realignment of the U.S.-Japan alliance and of U.S. military bases in Japan.
After leaving the Department of State, Straub taught U.S.-Korean relations at the Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies in the fall of 2006 and at the Graduate School of International Studies of Seoul National University in spring 2007. He has published a number of papers on U.S.-Korean relations. His foreign languages are Korean, Japanese, and German.
Jonathan Pollack
Senior Fellow, John L. Thornton China Center, The Brookings Institution
Speaker
Young Kwan Yoon
Professor, Seoul National University, and former Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade
Speaker
Thomas Fingar
Oksenberg/Rohlen Distinguished Fellow, Shorenstein APARC
Commentator
Rüdiger Frank
Professor of East Asian Economy and Society, East Asian Institute, University of Vienna
Speaker
Andrei Lankov
Professor, Kookmin University
Speaker
Andrew G. Walder
Professor, Department of Sociology, Stanford University
Speaker
Daniel Chirot
Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Washington
Commentator
Kathryn Stoner
Senior Fellow, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI), Stanford University
Commentator
Conferences
Issues of history, values, memory, and identity in the U.S.-South Korea relationship
- Read more about Issues of history, values, memory, and identity in the U.S.-South Korea relationship
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". . . History, values, memory, and identity are significant elements
that can influence the 'soft power' of an alliance built on 'hard
power,' and policy makers of both nations should not overlook their
importance," says Gi-Wook Shin, director of the Walter H. Shorenstein
Asia-Pacific Research Center and the Stanford Korean Studies Program, in
the chapter that he contributed to the recently published book U.S. Leadership, History, and Bilateral Relations in Northeast Asia.
In
his chapter "Values and History in U.S.-South Korean Relations," Shin
discusses developments in the types of issues that the United States and
South Korea have collaborated on in recent years--including free trade
agreements, Iraq and Afghanistan military operations, and policy
coordination toward North Korea--and the significance of issues of
history, values, memory, and identity--such as inter-Korean
reconciliation and memories of U.S. military maneuvers in Korea--that
have given the U.S.-South Korea relationship a "more complex and
multidimensional" nature.
Published by Cambridge University
Press in October 2010, the book was edited by Gilbert Rozman of
Princeton University's Department of Sociology.
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Truth and Reconciliation in South Korea
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Northeast Asian countries share a tumultuous history from the last century. But South Korea stands alone in that it has launched a comprehensive national investigation to take a more balanced look at its tortuous modern history and finally give voice to the many thousands of people who perished in state-sponsored political killings but whose stories have long been silenced.
In the past several years, the South Korean government's Truth and Reconciliation Commission has led an effort to dig into this grim hidden history. It has confirmed dozens of mass political killings during the Korean War—summary executions of leftists and supposed sympathizers, including women and children, who were shot and dumped into makeshift trenches, mine shafts or the sea. Grave by mass grave, investigators and victims' families have unearthed the skeletons and buried truths. No longer shackled by the repression of free speech, victims of the Communist witch-hunts by the post-war military governments in Seoul also began speaking out. The Commission investigated their cases and concluded that state interrogators used torture to extract false confessions from the victims. Its findings led courts to reopen the cases, reverse the old convictions and clear the victims' names, sometimes posthumously. But the Commission's work has also reawakened the painful memories and stoked political controversy in South Korea. It exposed the deep-running ideological divide, reminding South Koreans of the long shadow the Korean War still casts over their society.
Mr. Sang-Hun Choe, whose Pulitzer-winning journalism identified and helped spur the desire of South Koreans to revisit their recent history, has written extensively about the Commission's investigations.
Philippines Conference Room
Sang-Hun Choe
Shorenstein APARC
Stanford University
Encina Hall, Room C333
Stanford, CA 94305-6055
0
shchoe@stanford.edu
2010-2011 Fellow in Korean Studies
A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Mr. Choe, has written extensively on United States-Korea relations for the international news media, including the Associated Press and The International Herald Tribune, the international version of The New York Times, where he currently serves as a correspondent. While at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, Mr. Choe will analyze the perspective of U.S. experts focusing on issues concerning South Korea's government, media, and society.
Seminars