Korea Program

Shorenstein APARC's Korean Studies Program, begun in September 2000 and led by Gi-Wook Shin, features weekly luncheon seminars on Korea-related issues, from war reporting to health care to democracy. Heavily attended by students and faculty alike, the series is often standing-room-only.

As part of his mission to build awareness of Korean Studies at Stanford, regularly teaches both undergraduates and graduates, through the department of sociology. His most recent course offerings are Korean State and Society and Asia-Pacific Transformation. Focusing on society and politics in twentieth-century Korea and the rise of Asia after World War II, both classes introduced students to the forces of colonialism, nationalism, democratization, and globalization that have shaped modern Korea in particular and contemporary Asia in general. Shin also taught a Korean Studies Workshop in fall 2002.

Shin is also actively fundraising to support the new program, engaging in collaborative projects with Korean institutions, pursuing his own research activities. In February 2003, he organized a landmark conference, "North Korea: New Challenges, New Solutions", which included scholars and policymakers from the United States, Japan, China, and Russia, as well as South Korea. Conference participants produce a policy brief, which Shorenstein APARC published in April 2003, and which was subsequently presented to the Roh government in South Korea, and the governments in Tokyo and Washington, D.C.