Korean Job Discussion Forums

[SeoulFinn]

Dear all,


Let's entertain the following idea for a moment. Imagine that you have an opportunity, financial means and most of all, the will to spend the next 3 to 5 years doing research about one Korea related phenomena or topic. If you were completely free to choose your own topic for your Ph.D (in Korean Studies), what would it be? Would it be one of the following or something completely different?

NOTICE: I am well aware the following topics are highly sensitive to some Korean people. I hope that you keep in mind that my intention is not to defame or attack Korea. Furthermore, if admins want to delete something, I hope that you delete the offending post and not the whole thread.


1) Does Dokto (Takeshima, Liancourt Rocks) actually belong to South Korea or is the South Korean governments claim completely groundless?
Is there enough historical proof to support the commonly held belief (in Korea) that Dokto is Korean territory or not? If not, why is this still such a big issue to South Korea? Is it all done just to get even with Japan? (Occidentalism web site.)

2) Is Silla's hwarang corps (flowery boys/youth) and their ideology the origin of Japan's samurai class and bushido?
My personal belief is that hwarang were more involved with administration than warfare and very unlikely the forefathers of the samurai class.

3) Does japanese kendo actually have its origins in korean kumdo or not?
I've heard many times that Korea invented "kendo" and Japanese learned it from Korea. I've heard similar claims about other martial arts as well.

4) Did the pottery manufacturing originate in Korean Peninsula or in Japanese Archipelago?
This is another question I've heard and read about many times. Japanese claim that their Joomon pottery is older than Korean pottery and vice versa.

5) Is the Japanese imperial family originally Korean?
More about this can be read from here: Paekche of Korea and the Origin of Yamato Japan.

6) Anti-American (or foreign) sentiment in South Korea.
Well, you could probably do research about the often claimed "inferiority complex" towards Japan/West and how this xenophobia manifests in preset day Korea.

7) The problems behind South Korea's English language education.
Why Korean children do not learn English as fast and well as children of other nations? Can we blame unqualified(?) Korean teachers, hagwon business that is only interested in making money, or the massive workload that children have to bear in order to be accepted to a good university?

8 ) The reasons that lead Korea to have the highest suicide rate in the OECD member countries.
Korean National Statistics Office (NSO) blames 1997 IMF crises and its aftermath for the high suicide rate among 20-39 year people. I have difficulties buying it. ROK was not the only country to suffer from IMF crises, but might be the only one where main cause of death in certain age group is suicide.

Anyway, as I have already mentioned, you do not have to pick one from the list. The above mentioned just popped in my mind while I was writing this post. Please, let me know what your topic would be... and try not to get carried away!

[Mashimaro]

I think what the average person really wants to know is...
are Hyori's breasts real?

[Guri Guy]

Interesting stuff SeoulFinn.

I would probably choose another subject personally. I would choose to study the four Kingdoms period. Koguryeo, Paekjae, Shilla and Kaya. With an emphasis on Kaya.

Here is a good link on Kaya.:

Kaya: a Vanished State of Korea

http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/east_asian_history/116305

[wings]

I would choose Fan Death.

[aphase]

I would probably choose number 5 personally. I had to research that when i was in school and it was an interesting topic to research. don't know about doing it for a PhD tho.

[cdninkorea]

Number five and eight sound most interesting to me.

Then again, you're the one (potentially?) doing the doctorate thesis here; why do you care what we think?

[steroidmaximus]

cultural appropriation.

[Cedar]

I think it's very important to note that while many of these topics are historical research, some are not. With historical research of the type you are considering in some of the more ancient cases, and with many of these topcis you need to be able to read idu (Korean grammar applied to Chinese characters), Classical Chinese, and Japanese. Very little source material is in Korean, and what is will not be easy to read modern Korean. No one is going to respect your research if you haven't done this reading yourself in at least two of the languages needed. Furthermore, you need to be able to find --new-- information to have a final product that will catch anyone's eye. If you are just redigesting and rethinking existing issues, you will not get much notice, and no one will think you "solved" a difficult and politically charged issue. Finding that new information is TOUGH and can take much longer than 3-5 years. Many PhD's in history toil away a lot longer than that! In your later choices a few are sociologically informed and good Korean would be enough to do your research. So, think of your skills and don't try to tackle something that's going to be too difficult.

Have fun, study hard!

By the way, fairly recent and by accounts of people who read it (I didn't) solid research on Korean suicide exists... so that might be a topic to avoid or be seen as a copy-cat.

[insam]

i agree with cedar. doing anything historical makes no sense unless you can deal with primary sources (maybe you can now, don't know. presumably you would have to have more than one relevant language for a PhD regardless; however, it could lead to a huge amount of effort in 'dead' language training if you chose the classical path). in the humanities i think it would be cool to do something maybe in the field of contemporary literature or art. far too little attention is given to contemporary aspects of asian culture in most of these interdisciplinary programs.

more importantly, what are your goals once you have the degree? is it career related or something you just want to do for fun? if career related, you might want to do something in international relations etc as it won't pigeon-hole you into the humanities (much less classical humanities areas). you are more likely to get a job outside of academia proper if you focus on political and economic phenomena etc.

either way it sounds like fun, and i'm a little jealous. i don't have the balls or resources to do it.

[paquebot]

[bluelake]

Interesting topic, as my master's is in Korean studies and I will be working on a doctorate in it as well. My master's thesis was on Korean traditional archery; this past spring, I finished writing a book based upon it.

I'm still mulling over what I will lean towards studying, but it will probably be related to my other historical interest (1871 US-Korea confrontation).

[SeoulFinn]

My opening post is more like "What if?" mind game. Well, not completely as I'm pondering different options related to my future. I must admit that the idea of continuing my studies is more tempting to me than finding a desk job at some obscure location.

As for the topics I posted, I have paid some interest on all of them at least at some level in the past years. I don't know what the majority of you think, but to me there are so many interesting things happening in Korea and especially during her history. Other topics I have followed closely include dating/marriage customs and practices, decreasing birthrate, other women issues, Japan-Korea relations etc.

I thank all of you for your meaningful input and insights! Gaya, cultural appropriation, warfare etc. are a good additions to the list of interesting topics.


Paquebot: I'm familiar with zainichi and have read couple books about them. They are often mentioned in other books that focus on Japanese "untouchables" (hi-nin, eta). I could recommend you some books but they and my notes are in Finland. Good luck with your plans!

[Cedar]

As someone about to start a PhD with a research focus on Korea this fall, I just want to point out to everyone on the list that financial resources for study of Korea are available and the number of people tapping those resources is not high. AKS will accept many a foreigner with a competent academic record to do an MA or PhD in Korean Studies-- and they charge no tuition to foreigners. At other schools in Korea there are multiple grants and funding sources. Even in America there are many financial resources available. I did my MA (in Korea) and will do my PhD (in the States) without taking out a single loan.

[giggles84]

I would do it on "what can N and S Korea learn from Germany unification process". i think this will alow u to both compare and contrast korea and germany and also talk about distictive problerms/virtues of the korean culture