Stanford University

Foreign Policy

Gi-Wook Shin relaunches the Journal of Korean Studies at Shorenstein APARC

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After a long hiatus, Gi-Wook Shin, director of Shorenstein APARC and founding director of the Korean Studies Program at Stanford, has brought back the Journal of Korean Studies, the premier journal in the field, and given it new life at the Center. In a recent interview, he discusses the relaunch, the Journal's editorial process, and his plans for future issues.

Q. What is the history of the Journal of Korean Studies?

A. The Journal of Korean Studies was begun, I believe, in 1979 at the University of Washington by Professor James Palais, a preeminent Korean historian. The Journal of Japanese Studies appeared at the same time and both journals made tremendous contributions to their respective fields. The Journal of Korean Studies was unquestionably the top journal in the field of Korean studies. In fact, one of my first publications appeared in the Journal of Korean Studies. However, unlike the Journal of Japanese Studies, which has been published without interruption since its founding, publication of the Journal of Korean Studies was suspended in 1992 due to financial and administrative problems. So now we're reviving it at long last.

Q. Why did you feel it was important to revive the journal of korean studies and bring it to APARC?

A. First of all, there isn't really any top journal in the field at present, and Korean studies has grown enormously in the last ten years. As a result, there has been considerable demand for a good journal, especially among young scholars who want to publish their work. For Korean studies to continue to grow in the United States, it's vital for scholars to have a place to publish their research outcomes.

With respect to APARC serving as the home for the Journal of Korean Studies, we are still building up Korean studies at the Center, and at Stanford as a whole. I believe that having a premier journal in the program will more quickly place the program itself on the national map. It's also a great service to Korean studies in general. Many people-including very senior leaders in the field-really appreciate that we have put in the effort to bring back this important publication after such a long hiatus. And I'm so grateful to APARC for its financial, editorial, and administrative support in making the issue a reality. Chiho Sawada, postdoctoral research fellow in Korean studies at APARC, assisted me as associate editor and Victoria Tomkinson has done a wonderful job of editing the articles. We will celebrate the revival of the Journal of Korean Studies at the upcoming national meetings of the Association for Asian Studies.

Q. Where does the journal of korean studies fit into stanford's korean studies program?

A. Stanford's program began relatively late. This isn't to say that we haven't grown hugely, because the program has really taken off in the past three years. Yet there are other programs that have been up and running much longer, and therefore are more established. When I left the University of California, Los Angeles, which has the most well-established program in the nation, I wanted to create a unique Korean studies program at Stanford.

My vision for the Stanford Korean Studies Program can be summarized in two terms: social science and research. The research mission includes student training through research projects. Many students-both undergraduate and graduate-are involved in various research projects within the Korean Studies Program. Most other institutional programs focus on humanities and I don't intend to repeat what others elsewhere in the country and the world have already done. As I want to focus on social science, and research and publication, the Journal of Korean Studies will be a key component of that mission.

Q. Does the journal of korean studies have a particular focus within the field of korean studies?

A. Until now, the Journal of Korean Studies has predominantly published articles on history, literature, and culture, reflecting a general trend in the current field of Korean studies. Going forward, I'd like to publish more papers on social science. The revival issue doesn't reflect that goal and given the current concentration on humanities in the field, it won't be easy. Yet it's my hope that we'll tip the balance toward social sciences in subsequent issues and this is another way of making a contribution to the field as a whole.

Q. Publishing a major academic journal is a big job. What's the editorial procedure? What, for you as the co-editor [with john duncan, at the University of California, Los Angeles], is the most challenging part of putting the journal of korean studies together each year?

A. The number one challenge is getting good manuscripts. Last year, we received over twenty articles, but we accepted only one (and asked a few authors to revise and resubmit). Now that the journal is out, we expect more submissions in the months to come. My top priority is to control the quality of what we publish.

The second big challenge is finding good reviewers. The Journal of Korean Studies is, of course, a refereed journal. Usually we send each submitted manuscript to two people to read and evaluate, but the field of Korean studies is pretty small, and we can't go back to the same people all the time. Finding good readers will continue to be a vital but time-consuming part of the editorial process.

Q. What topics do you plan to cover in future issues?

A. My plan is to publish one general issue per year that covers a broad spectrum of topics in Korean studies, much like our revival issue. And, beginning this summer, I'm going to hold an annual one-week summer workshop, a small gathering here at Stanford. I'll pick a specific topic or theme and then through open competition select five or six scholars who have a draft paper on the topic. I will bring them to Stanford for one week and work with a senior scholar to lead the workshop. I plan to publish the papers that come out of that workshop as a special issue of the Journal of Korean Studies. The workshop we are organizing for summer 2005 will address the globalization of Korea. Professor Michael Robinson of Indiana University (who previously collaborated with me on Colonial Modernity in Korea) will lead the workshop. Thus, starting in 2006, the Journal of Korean Studies will publish one general and one special issue each year.

Q. Any highlights from this inaugural issue?

A. All of the articles in this inaugural issue have been carefully selected and are very strong in their quality. I'm particularly pleased that the articles range across so many subjects, from Michael Kim's piece on vernacular fiction and popular reading, to Robert Buswell's study of the significance of Sugi's collation notes on the Korean Buddhist canon, to Jin-Kyung Lee's article about feminist literature in 1950s South Korea. In addition to these, there are two other research articles, and a number of reviews of recent books in the field.

Q. How can people get copies of the journal of korean studies?

A. Subscriptions to the Journal of Korean Studies are being handled by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, located in Maryland. They, too, have been wonderfully supportive and involved in getting the Journal of Korean Studies off the ground. Those wishing to subscribe to the Journal can find more information on the .

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Call for proposals: Shorenstein APARC establishes new fund for comparative health care policy research

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The Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University invites applications to receive funding grants for activities or programs focusing on health care policy in Asia. Shorenstein APARC welcomes research proposals on a wide range of topics from diverse disciplines, but has particular interest in international studies of demography; the effects of an aging population on social, economic, and political systems; and the causes and prevention of epidemics such as AIDS and Avian Influenza in Asian countries.

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Security, Community, and Democracy in Southeast Asia: Analyzing ASEAN

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Is the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) a pluralistic security community (PSC)? Does community cause security in Southeast Asia? In a PSC, member states are sovereign. So are the members of ASEAN. Before concluding that the ASEAN region is a PSC, however, one should distinguish between two versions: a thin or descriptive PSC, whose members share both a sense of community and the expectation of security, and a thick or explanatory version in which community has actually been shown to cause security. Depending on how a sense of community is defined, one may say that at certain times in its history, ASEAN probably has been a thin PSC. More recently, however, the cooperative identity of regional elites may have frayed, as democratization, especially in Indonesia, has incorporated non-elites into public life. Meanwhile the proposition that the assurance of security in Southeast Asia has resulted from this sense of community, that ASEAN is a thick PSC, remains to be proven.

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Donald K. Emmerson

Taiwan's Policy Towards the Mainland

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Mr. Chiu Tai-san will speak about Taiwan's policy on cross-strait relations towards the Mainland with invited guests discussing its impact on US foreign policy.

Daniel I. Okimoto Conference Room

Chiu Tai-san Vice Chairman of Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council
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Taiwan Democracy

We Are All Pingpu: Notes on the Pingpu Identity in Contemporary Taiwanese Society

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Since the 1980s, simultaneous trends in Taiwan toward globalization and localization have contributed to people's construction of a past promoting local solidarity. Such rewriting of Taiwanese consciousness has relied heavily on a "rediscovery" of cultural traditions corresponding to Pingpu identity. (Pingpu identity is debated as an indigenous or a mestizo identity and used to claim that Taiwan is not Chinese.) Professor Pans examination of the development of Pingpu identity over the past ten years focuses on the 1996 event "We are All Pingpu" and uses both ethnographic and historical materials to analyze the role of Pingpu identity in rewriting Taiwanese conscious-ness.

Dr. Pan's research addresses the following questions: Who are the Pingpu? Why do some Taiwanese choose to be identified as Pingu while others do not? What is the significance of Pingpu identity for present-day Taiwanese consciousness? How has Pingpu identity been constructed? How and why do people rewrite the past when an identity is being created?

This is the final seminar in the Taiwan Seminar Series hosted by Shorenstein APARC.

Okimoto Conference Room

Inghai Pan Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica, Taipei,Taiwan
Seminars

ITRI-SPRIE CONFERENCE: The Greater China Capital Market for Innovation and Entrepreneurship

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Among the different types of capital resources, venture capital as practiced in Silicon Valley is broadly acknowledged as being an important constituent of a high technology, entrepreneurial habitat. In the past two decades, policy makers from different regions have learned much from its experience.

The IT industry attributes its success partly to venture capital investments in early, risky, stages. Looking ahead, other industries will emerge in the knowledge economy. Within Taiwan and Mainland China, information related industries still dominate investment, yet in Silicon Valley emerging industries including biotechnology, medical instruments and nanotechnology have recently been attracting as much venture capital as the IT industry.

Today, venture capitalists from Silicon Valley and Taiwan are probing what they perceive as growing investment opportunities in Mainland China, On the other hand, the immaturity of its private equity market and the undeveloped state of exit mechanisms there is causing venture capitalists to hesitate to made large investments. Currently, Taiwan's venture capital faces low price-earnings ratios in its 1,400 publicly listed companies. This has contributed to a decline in VC investment. The Taiwan government expects to further liberalize the financing environment to bolster it as a regional center for domestic and international corporations.

This conference will address the influence of the system of capital on regional innovation and entrepreneurship in the United States, Taiwan, and Mainland China. The focus will be on the venture capital industry, corporate venturing and other institutions of capital related to regional industrial development.

Here are some questions to be addressed in this conference:

  • What is the pattern of venture capital investing in high-tech start-ups in the Greater China Area?
  • What are the trends in this industry?
  • How, specifically, does venture capital promote innovation and entrepreneurship?
  • What are the similarities among independent venture capital funds, corporate venture funds, angel funds, and commercial bank involvements?

Conference Organization

Conference Chairman

  • Dr. Chintay Shih, Dean of College of Technology Management, National Tsing Hua University, and Special Advisor, Industrial Technology Research Institute

Co-chairmen

  • Dr. Paul Wang, Chairman, Taiwan Venture Capital Association
  • Dr. Henry Rowen, Co-director, SPRIE
  • Dr. William Miller, Co-director, SPRIE

Executive Director

  • Dr. Sean Wang, Director General of Industrial Economics and Knowledge Center in Industrial Technology Research Institute

Conference Secretariat

  • Industrial Economics and Knowledge Center, Industrial Technology Research Institute (IEK/ITRI)

Conference Organizing Secretariat

  • ITRI: Yi-Ling Wei, Peter Lai, Frank Lin, Shu-Chen Huang
  • TVCA: Teresa Yang, Michael Chen, Riva Su
  • SPRIE: Marguerite Gong Hancock (Stanford)/Martin Kenney (UC Davis)
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1 Chung Shan N. Road, Sec. 4, Taipei, Taiwan

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Stanford Program on Regions of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SPRIE)

SPRIE selects inaugural postdoctoral fellows for 2005-2006 academic year

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As part of a new initiative on Greater China, SPRIE has selected two outstanding young scholars as the inaugural SPRIE Fellows at Stanford for research and writing on Greater China and its role in the global knowledge economy. Xiaohong (Iris) Quan and Doug Fuller, from the University of California, Berkeley and MIT, respectively, will join the SPRIE research team for the 2005-2006 academic year.

The primary focus of the program is the intersection of innovation and entrepreneurship and underlying contemporary political, economic, technological, and/or business factors in Greater China (including Taiwan, Mainland China, Singapore). Topics of particular interest include, but are not limited to, university-industry linkages, globalization of R&D, venture capital industry development, networks and flows of managerial and technical leaders, and leading high technology clusters in Greater China. Industries of ongoing research at SPRIE include semiconductors, wireless, and software.

SPRIE Fellows at Stanford will be in residence for at least three academic quarters, beginning in fall 2005. Fellows take part in Center activities, including research forums, seminars, and workshops throughout the academic year, and will present their research findings in SPRIE seminars. They will also participate as members of SPRIE's team in its public and invitation-only seminars and workshops with academic, business, and government leaders. Fellows will also participate in the publication programs of SPRIE and APARC.

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Inside ASEAN: Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam, and the Non-Interference Controversy

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The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has long been based on the principle of national sovereignty, including a norm against interference by one member state in another's domestic affairs. But some members would like to set aside the prohibition in cases such as Myanmar, whose military junta continues to repress Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy to the detriment of ASEAN's image in the West. Opposed to this view are the group's newest, poorer, more continental, and politically more closed members: Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, and of course Myanmar itself. They want ASEAN to uphold national sovereignty and reaffirm non-interference. The prospect of Myanmar assuming the chair of ASEAN in 2006-2007 makes this controversery even more acute. Is ASEAN splitting up? Will a compromise be reached? And with what implications for the nature and future of ASEAN and its conservative faction?

Carlyle A. Thayer is the 2004-2005 C. V. Starr Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington DC. He has written and lectured widely on Southeast Asian affairs. He has held positions at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies (in Hawaii) and the Australian Defence College. His degrees are from the Australian National University (PhD), Yale University (MA), and Brown University (BA).

This is the 10th seminar of the 2004-2005 academic year hosted by the Southeast Asia Forum.

Okimoto Conference Room

Carlyle A. Thayer Professor of Politics Australian Defence Force Academy
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Southeast Asia Program

Globalization of Services: the First Annual Conference

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The offshoring of service provision is rapidly becoming the next stage in globalization. As in any new emerging trend, there are new business and investment opportunities emerging. However, remarkably little is known about the scope of the phenomenon and what is happening in the leading corporations and the new business models entrepreneurs are introducing.

On June 17, 2005, Stanford University's Asia-Pacific Research Center is organizing a one-day seminar partially sponsored by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and others on the globalization of services. The presentations will be made by international and U.S. industry leaders and entrepreneurs describing their offshore service activities and leading academic researchers studying offshoring.

The conference will (1) Compare outsourcing locally and globally, examining differences that arise from differences in skills, institutions, regulations, technologies, process and coordination requirements, (2) Take a global view of the value-chain, examining the quantity and quality of skills in service delivery, migration and process management, verticals, and the impact on ownership structures and complexity of work done. (3) Examine the roles of cross-border participants: venture capital, product developers, etc..

Speakers will include representatives of established outsourcers from India, Mexico, Pakistan, the Philippines and the U.S., established multinationals that offshore work to their own subsidiaries, startups and niche firms that do cross-border work, providers of the supporting infrastructure banks, venture capitalists, law firms, etc. Academicians from Oxford University, Stanford University, the University of California and other academic bodies will also participate.

Case studies and academic papers on outsourcing/offshoring to be presented at the conference:

  1. Trade Finance (DSL)
  2. UK HR industry (Oxford University)
  3. Software and chip design (Tensilica)
  4. Software application services (TCS)
  5. Back-office finance & accounts (Agilent)
  6. Call Center/Multiple Services Firms (TRG, PLDT, I-OneSource, IT United)
  7. HR development for US firms undertaking Indian operations (Globalex)
  8. Legal aspects of establishing Indian operations (Thakker and Thakker)
  9. Network management (GTL)
  10. Enterprise software as a service (Ketera)
  11. HR and value-addition (Stanford University/UC Davis)
  12. Applying process and technology for value-addition (Gecis)
  13. Managing inhouse work (IBM Daksh)
  14. Transitioning outsourcing from the US to India (e4e)
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Rafiq Dossani

No longer in residence.

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R_Dossani_headshot.jpg PhD

Rafiq Dossani was a senior research scholar at Stanford University's Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) and erstwhile director of the Stanford Center for South Asia. His research interests include South Asian security, government, higher education, technology, and business.  

Dossani’s most recent book is Knowledge Perspectives of New Product Development, co-edited with D. Assimakopoulos and E. Carayannis, published in 2011 by Springer. His earlier books include Does South Asia Exist?, published in 2010 by Shorenstein APARC; India Arriving, published in 2007 by AMACOM Books/American Management Association (reprinted in India in 2008 by McGraw-Hill, and in China in 2009 by Oriental Publishing House); Prospects for Peace in South Asia, co-edited with Henry Rowen, published in 2005 by Stanford University Press; and Telecommunications Reform in India, published in 2002 by Greenwood Press. One book is under preparation: Higher Education in the BRIC Countries, co-authored with Martin Carnoy and others, to be published in 2012.

Dossani currently chairs FOCUS USA, a non-profit organization that supports emergency relief in the developing world. Between 2004 and 2010, he was a trustee of Hidden Villa, a non-profit educational organization in the Bay Area. He also serves on the board of the Industry Studies Association, and is chair of the Industry Studies Association Annual Conference for 2010–12.

Earlier, Dossani worked for the Robert Fleming Investment Banking group, first as CEO of its India operations and later as head of its San Francisco operations. He also previously served as the chairman and CEO of a stockbroking firm on the OTCEI stock exchange in India, as the deputy editor of Business India Weekly, and as a professor of finance at Pennsylvania State University.

Dossani holds a BA in economics from St. Stephen's College, New Delhi, India; an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, India; and a PhD in finance from Northwestern University.

Senior Research Scholar
Executive Director, South Asia Initiative
Rafiq Dossani Speaker
Conferences
South Asia Initiative
Globalization of Services Conference
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