The legacies of colonialism, the Cold War, and U.S. policies significantly shaped state-building and economic growth in post-World War II Asia, including South Korea. While these factors have been extensively studied, one crucial aspect has been underexplored: the power of ideas. This talk will cover the historical changes and continuity of ideas and knowledge on public administration in South Korea during the 1940-1960s. The presenter will focus on the dissemination and transformation of American administrative knowledge in this period, addressing how the original American knowledge was disseminated to South Korea, and why and how it was sought to be ‘Koreanized’ by public administration scholars in South Korea.

Speaker:

Seok Jin Eom is a professor of the Graduate School of Public Administration at Seoul National University in Korea. He is a Fulbright scholar and a 2025-26 visiting scholar at Stanford's Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center. His current research interests include the intellectual history of Korean public administration, the changes and continuity of public governance in Korea, and the digital transformation of government in the AI era. He has published numerous academic papers and books including The Intellectual History of Korean Public Administration Research and Education (2026, Seoul National University Press), Enabling Data-Driven Innovation and AI Government in Korea (2026, Springer), and The Changes and Continuity of Japanese State Apparatus (2015, Seoul National University Press).

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