Past e-School Courses

Course Number: KOREAN 5256 (OSU); KOR 498 (PSU); EAS 301-003 (UW)

Times: Wednesday & Friday, 2:20-3:40pm (ET)

Instructor: Pil Ho Kim, kim.2736@osu.edu

Course Flyer

This is an introductory course for undergraduate students of all levels who are interested in how popular culture has been mediating Korea in the modern era and the complex, often tormented relationship between North and South Korea since the national division. In particular, we will focus on South Korea’s newfound soft power and its global impact that reaches even North Korea. In addition to academic texts, this course will make use of a wealth of materials from popular literature, music, film, TV dramas, cartoon, animation, internet and sports.

Through the lens of popular culture, we can observe how the nation responded to the inroads of modern western culture during the early modern period; how the politics of the Cold War and American hegemony affected them; how Korean popular culture has evolved and adapted to the rapid economic development and social changes in the postwar period. In terms of both export industry and lifestyle practice, the South Korean pop culture phenomenon – commonly known as the ‘Korean Wave’ or Hallyu – has come to enjoy global recognition. We will also compare and contrast North Korea’s self-image with popular cultural representations of North Korea by the South Korean media and the Hollywood/western media.

Hosting University: Ohio State University

Participating Universities: Penn State University; University of Wisconsin

Academic Calendar: Unless specified by the course instructor, the course will follow the host campus’ academic calendar.

Course Number: EALC 199, HIST 108, KOR 197 (UW); ALL 3920 (UMN); History 3435 (OSU)

Times: Monday & Wednesday, 11:00-11:50pm (CT) Discussion Sections on Fridays

Instructor: Charles Kim, PhD, ckim45@wisc.edu

Course Flyer

Korea has a long and rich history that provides a unique vantage point for understanding major processes in East Asia and the world. This course explores Korean history from the fourteenth century to the present. The first part of the course delves into key topics from the Chosŏn Dynasty (1392-1910), including Confucianization and the evolution of national identity. The second part focuses on politics, culture, and society under Japanese colonial rule (1910-1945). The final part turns to the contemporary era (1945 to present) to shed light on national division, social movements, gender relations, and popular culture in South Korea and North Korea.

Hosting University: University of Wisconsin

Participating Universities: University of Minnesota; Ohio State University

Academic Calendar: Unless specified by the course instructor, the course will follow the host campus’ academic calendar.

Course Number: ALL 3920 (UMN), ASN 291, Section 301 (MSU); ASIAN 380.002 (U-M)

Times: Tuesday and Thursday 2:00-3:15pm (CT)

Instructor: Hangtae Cho, PhD / htcho@umn.edu

Course Flyer

This course is designed to offer an introduction and contrastive analysis of the language and society of the two Koreas; the Republic of Korea (better known as South Korea) and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (better known as North Korea) with a heavier emphasis on North Korea. This course will introduce the growing divide of the past 70 years between North and South Korea in the areas of language, society and culture. The complexity of the East Asian region is partly due to the issues involving the two Koreas; however, knowledge regarding North Korea remains very limited compared to its neighbors. Mass media portrays the controversial political and human right issues of North Korea but generally lacks in coverage of everyday life there. The course content will be based on various scholarly articles and book chapters, current web-based resources, news reports, North Korean propaganda and documentaries. While this course will include linguistic elements of interest to intermediate and advanced students of the Korean language, all course content will be accessible to students regardless of Korean language proficiency. This course has no pre-requisites and does not expect students to have a background in political science, Korean history, or sociology, nor a background on North Korea. It does however expect that students have some interest in these areas.

Hosting University: University of Minnesota

Participating Universities: Michigan State University; University of Michigan

Academic Calendar: Unless specified by the course instructor, the course will follow the host campus’ academic calendar.

Language and Society of Two Koreas

Course Number: ALL 3920 (UMN), KORA 398A (UMD), EAS 301 (UW)

Times: Monday & Wednesday 3:00-4:15pm (ET)

Instructor: Hangtae Cho, PhD / htcho@umn.edu  

This course is designed to off er an introduction and contrastive analysis of the language and society of the two Koreas; the Republic of Korea (better known as South Korea) and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (better known as North Korea) with a heavier emphasis on North Korea. This course will introduce the growing divide of the past 60+ years between North and South Korea in the areas of language, society and culture. The complexity of the East Asian region is partly due to the issues involving the two Koreas; however, knowledge regarding North Korea remains very limited compared to its neighbors. Mass media portrays the controversial political and human right issues of North Korea but generally lacks in coverage of everyday life there. The course content will be based on various scholarly articles and book chapters, current web-based resources, news reports, North Korean propaganda and documentaries. While this course will include linguistic elements of interest to intermediate and advanced students of the Korean language, all course content will be accessible to students regardless of Korean language profi ciency. This course has no pre-requisites and does not expect students to have a background in political science, Korean history, or sociology, nor a background on North Korea. It does however expect that students have some interest in these areas.

Hosting University: University of Minnesota

Participating Universities: University of Maryland; University of Wisconsin

Academic Calendar: Unless specified by the course instructor, the course will follow the host campus’ academic calendar.

Korean History: 1945-Present

Course Number: ALL 3920 (UMN), History 335 (UW)

Times: Monday & Wednesday 11:00-11:50am (CT)

Instructor: Charles Kim, PhD / ckim45@wisc.edu

Ever since the establishment of two Korean nation-states after the end of World War II, North Korea and South Korea have been part and parcel of key trends and phenomena in East Asia and the world. As such, the post-1945 history of Korea has been shot through with transformations, dynamism, conflicts, triumphs, and, most of all, the unexpected. This course explores the politics, society, and culture of the two Koreas. Key topics include national division and the Korean War, the Cold War, memory, protest, popular culture, and globalization.

Hosting University: University of Wisconsin

Participating Universities: University of Minnesota

Academic Calendar: Unless specified by the course instructor, the course will follow the host campus’ academic calendar.

Language and Culture: Korean and Korean Americans

Course Number: KOR 498 (PSU), ASN 291.301 (MSU), EAS 301 (UW)

Times: Tuesday & Thursday 12:00-1:15pm (ET)

Instructor: Susan Strauss, PhD / sgs9@psu.edu

In this course, we will study the interrelationships between culture, language, and worldview-with a specifi c focus on Korea and Koreans (living in Korea and abroad). Through research, theory, videos, printed matter, and music, we will investigate:

--How language shapes, creates, and is created by behaviors, expectations, orientations, perceptions, and practices

--How language shapes ways of viewing time, space, identities, nation, belonging, exclusion, opinion, even sensory perception-focusing on such issues as:

• Family - structure, kinship, children, the elderly
• Food - taste, presentation; noodle/rice culture
• Politeness (e.g., face, directness, honorifi cs)
• Identity (e.g., national identity, gender identity)
• Advertising - electronics, food and beverages, fashion
• Media and Entertainment - Korean Wave, K Drama, K-Pop

Hosting University: Penn State University

Participating Universities: University of Wisconsin, Michigan State University

Academic Calendar: Unless specified by the course instructor, the course will follow the host campus’ academic calendar.

Controversies in Contemporary Korea

Course Number: Asian 376 (U-M); EAS 300

Times: Tues/Thurs 3:00 – 4:30PM (CT), 4:00 – 5:30PM (ET)

Instructor: Semi Oh

This course examines a number of key controversies in contemporary Korea (South and North). Through this examination this course will seek to provide a more critical understanding of the issues that drive the political economy and culture of Korea. Among other things, this course will examine the issue of comfort women, the Japanese history textbook controversy, the debate over Dokdo, collaboration during colonial rule, globalization, economic growth, and the Korean Wave (Hallyu), North Korea and the Axis of Evil, and education fever in South Korea.

Hosting University: University of Michigan

Participating Universities: University of Wisconsin

Academic Calendar: Unless specified by the course instructor, the course will follow the host campus’ academic calendar.

Two Koreas: Political Economy of Regional Rivalry

Course Number: IS5050 (OSU), ASIA:4050 (039:147) / POLI:4050 (UI), INTL STD 388 (U-M)

Times: Tuesday & Thursday, 2:20-3:40pm (ET)

Instructor: Young-Bae Hwang / hwang.106@osu.edu

The main objective of this course is to provide students with the introductory understanding on the Korean peninsula. While we look at various theoretical and historical explanations, this course will focus on the nature of North and South Korean regional rivalry and its global impacts. We will examine various security issues including North Korean nuclear threat, military alliances, and reunification prospects. In addition, we will discuss several economic issues such as the differential growth paths, South Korea’s rapid growth, and recent economic woes in both Koreas.

Hosting University: Ohio State University

Participating Universities: University of Iowa, University of Michigan

Academic Calendar: Unless specified by the course instructor, the course will follow the host campus’ academic calendar.

Cinema and Society in Contemporary South Korea

Course Number: KORA 398C (UMD), E350 / E505 (IU)

Times: Monday 4:30-5:45pm & Thursday 5-8:30pm (ET)

Instructor: John Finch, PhD / jfinch@gwu.edu

This course examines the intersection of gender, class, and nation in contemporary Korean society through the lens of current Korean films. The turbulent recent history of South Korea has produced a society that is engaged with a variety of local and global social forces in complex and contradictory ways. The sweeping social changes in South Korean society have engaged it in a struggle to redefine and re-examine itself, and its relation to such basic ideas as gender, class, tradition and nation. Contemporary Korean films provide an especially interesting entrée into these issues and how Koreans have been thinking about them. Students will be exposed to a variety of films (with English subtitles) that deal with various issues pertaining to gender, class, and national identity. The readings for the course draw from the fi elds of anthropology, history, literature, women’s studies, and film studies. Students will be given an opportunity to contextualize their learning through an understanding of how issues facing South Korean society relate to their own circumstances. Each week, the class will be organized around the screening of a feature film, preceded by an introduction to locate it in its cultural context and followed by a discussion.

Hosting University: University of Maryland

Participating Universities: Indiana University

Academic Calendar: Unless specified by the course instructor, the course will follow the host campus’ academic calendar.

History of Modern Korea

Course Number: HISTORY G372 (IU), HISTORY 392.002 (U-M), ASN 291 section 301 (MSU)

Times: Tuesday/Thursday 4:00-5:15PM (EST)

Instructor: Michael Robinson

This course examines the society, politics, and economic development of modern Korea of both North and South. The major themes of the course focus on the transformation of Korea from an agrarian, bureaucratic/aristocratic society into two, dynamic, authoritarian, industrialized and, in the case of the South Korea, democratizing, states. We will trace Korea’s response to the influx of Western political power in Asia after 1840 and examine the effects on Korea of the intrusion of capitalism and imperialism in the late 19th century. Since 1900, intellectual, political, social, and economic change in Korea has been extraordinarily rapid. How the modern Korean state and society has evolved as a response to this change is the central concern of the course. We will have to balance the force of the traditional legacy in the emerging blend of old and new in modern Korea in order to understand the unique shape of contemporary Korea’s social political order and its place in the emerging world order of the 21stcentury.

Hosting University: Indiana University

Participating Universities: University of Michigan, Michigan State University

Academic Calendar: Unless specified by the course instructor, the course will follow the host campus’ academic calendar.

Cultures of the Cold War in Korea

Course Number: ALL 3920-001 (UMN), KOREAN 4194 (OSU), KOR498 (PSU)

Times: Tuesday/Thursday 11:15-12:30(CST)/12:15-1:30(EST)

Instructor: Travis Workman

In this course we will analyze the Cold War not only as a geopolitical event, but also as a historical period marked by specific cultural and artistic forms. We focus on the Korean peninsula, looking closely at the literary and film cultures of both South Korea and North Korea. We discuss how the global conflict between U.S.-centered and Soviet-centered societies affected the politics, culture, and geography of Korea between 1945 and 1989, treating the division of Korea as an exemplary case extending from the origins of the Cold War to the present. We span the Cold War divide to compare the culture and politics of the South and the North through various cultural forms, including anti-communist and socialist realist films, biography and autobiography, fiction, and political discourse. The primary purpose is to be able to analyze post-1945 Korean cultures as both local forms and as significant parts of the global context of the Cold War era.

Hosting University: University of Minnesota

Participating Universities: Ohio State University, Penn State University

Academic Calendar: Unless specified by the course instructor, the course will follow the host campus’ academic calendar.

Two Koreas: Political Economy of Regional Rivalry

Course Number: IS5050 (OSU), ASIA:4050 (039:147) / POLI:4050 (UI), INTL STD 388 (U-M)

Times: Tuesday & Thursday, 2:20-3:40pm (ET)

Instructor: Young-Bae Hwang / hwang.106@osu.edu

The main objective of this course is to provide students with the introductory understanding on the Korean peninsula. While we look at various theoretical and historical explanations, this course will focus on the nature of North and South Korean regional rivalry and its global impacts. We will examine various security issues including North Korean nuclear threat, military alliances, and reunification prospects. In addition, we will discuss several economic issues such as the differential growth paths, South Korea’s rapid growth, and recent economic woes in both Koreas.

Hosting University: Ohio State University

Participating Universities: University of Iowa, University of Michigan

Academic Calendar: Unless specified by the course instructor, the course will follow the host campus’ academic calendar.

Language and Culture in Everyday Life: Korean Discourse as a Window Into Culture, Perception, Cognition, Identity, and Taste

Course Number: KOR 498 (PSU); EALC 398 CIC (UIUC); KOREAN 574:390 (RU)

Times: Tues/Thurs 10:15 – 11:30AM (CT), 11:15 – 12:30PM (ET)

Instructor: Susan Strauss

In this course, we will study the interrelationships between culture, language, and worldview-with a specific focus on Korea and Koreans (living in Korea and abroad).  Through research, theory, videos, printed matter, and music, we will investigate:

• How language shapes, creates, and is created by behaviors, expectations, orientations, perceptions, and practices
• How language shapes ways of viewing time, space, identities, nation, belonging, exclusion, opinion, even sensory perception-focusing on such issues as:
• Family - structure, kinship, children, the elderly
• Food - taste, presentation; noodle/rice culture
• Politeness (e.g., face, directness, honorifics)
• Identity (e.g., national identity, gender identity)
• Advertising - electronics, food and beverages, fashion
• Media and Entertainment - Korean Wave, K Drama, K-Pop

No prior knowledge of Korean is required.

Hosting University: Penn State University

Participating Universities: University of Illinois, Rutgers University

Academic Calendar: Unless specified by the course instructor, the course will follow the host campus’ academic calendar.

Controversies in Contemporary Korea

Course Number: ASIAN 376 (U-M), HISTORY 3194 (OSU), ASN 291 (MSU)

Times: Tuesday 4:00-7:00

Instructor: Juhn Ahn

This course examines four contemporary controversies in Korea (South and North) in
order to provide a broad understanding of the very recent history of the birthplace of the
“Korean Wave” and the “Miracle of the Han River”: (1) comfort women, Japanese history
textbook controversy, and Dokdo; (2) globalization, economic growth, and the Korean
Wave (Hallyu); (3) North Korea and the Axis of Evil; (4) education fever in South Korea.

Hosting University: University of Michigan

Participating Universities: Michigan State University, Ohio State University

Academic Calendar: Unless specified by the course instructor, the course will follow the host campus' academic calendar.

Introduction to Korean History

Course Number: History 108 (UW), KOR 197 (PSU), EALC 199 (UIUC)

Times: Monday/Wednesday/Friday 11:00-11:50 (EST)/12:00-12:50 (CT)

Instructor: Charles Kim

Korea has a long and rich history that provides a unique vantage point for understanding
major processes in East Asia and the world. This course provides a introduction to Korean
history from antiquity to the present. In the first part of the semester, we will delve into key
topics from the Koryo Dynasty (935-1392) and the Choson Dynasty (1392-1910), including
collective (or “proto-national”) identity, Confucian statecraft and Confucianization, and the
Tonghak religion and rebellions. In the second part of the semester, we will explore the
major transformations in politics, culture, and society during the 20th and 21st centuries.
Nationalism, colonialism, the Cold War and national division, gender identities, authoritarian
rule and, democratization, popular culture, and globalization are among the topics that we
will cover.

Hosting University: University of Wisconsin

Participating Universities: University of Illinois, U-C, Penn State University

Academic Calendar: Unless specified by the course instructor, the course will follow the host campus' academic calendar.

North Korea Beyond Images

Course Number: KOREAN 4194 (OSU), LIT TRANS 374 (UW), EALC E350 (IU)

Times: Tursday 3:25-5:55(EST)/2:25-4:55(CT)

Instructor: Se-Mi Oh

This course is designed to explore the visual cultures of North Korea. Why do we concern ourselves with the visual aspects of North Korean Culture? While North Korea has notoriously gained a reputation as the most isolated country in the world, there are many images inundating media, in news or in popular culture. Images are the most prominent way through which we gain knowledge about North Korea, but they are not transparent mediums and are in need of interpretation.

Throughout the semester, we will explore various ways through which North Korea uses visual mediums to showcase its state power and ideology, to write history, and to represent memory to the people of North Korea and to the world. We will also examine the representation of North Korea from perspective of the defectors as well as the Western spectators and even tourists. The genres that we will examine include art, architecture, murals, posters, stamps, illustrations, animation, photography, film, opera, mass games, museum, cemetery, and processions/parades. Students are expected to develop a critical perspective on the politics of representation and the role of the mediums in use.

Hosting University: University of Wisconsin

Participating Universities: Indiana University, The Ohio State University

Academic Calendar: Unless specified by the course instructor, the course will follow the host campus' academic calendar.

History of Modern Korea

Course Number: HISTORY G372 (IU), HISTORY 392.002 (U-M), ASN 291 section 301 (MSU)

Times: Tuesday/Thursday 4:00-5:15PM (EST)

Instructor: Michael Robinson

This course examines the society, politics, and economic development of modern Korea of both North and South. The major themes of the course focus on the transformation of Korea from an agrarian, bureaucratic/aristocratic society into two, dynamic, authoritarian, industrialized and, in the case of the South Korea, democratizing, states. We will trace Korea’s response to the influx of Western political power in Asia after 1840 and examine the effects on Korea of the intrusion of capitalism and imperialism in the late 19th century. Since 1900, intellectual, political, social, and economic change in Korea has been extraordinarily rapid. How the modern Korean state and society has evolved as a response to this change is the central concern of the course. We will have to balance the force of the traditional legacy in the emerging blend of old and new in modern Korea in order to understand the unique shape of contemporary Korea’s social political order and its place in the emerging world order of the 21stcentury.

Hosting University: Indiana University

Participating Universities: University of Michigan, Michigan State University

Academic Calendar: Unless specified by the course instructor, the course will follow the host campus’ academic calendar.

Modern Korean Literature

Course Number: SIAN375 (U-M), KOR498 (PSU), ASIAN 291.301 (MSU)

Times: Monday/Wednesday 1:00-2:30 (ET)

Instructor: Youngju Ryu

Throughout the twentieth century in Korea, literature provided the heated battleground for social and political contestations. In this class, we will read major works of modern Korean fiction in English translation and explore the relationship between literature and politics within a historical context that spans from the end of Confucian monarchy to colonialism, civil war, authoritarianism, democratization, and neoliberalization. Central to this exploration is the theme of modernity. Rather than take modernity as given, we will ask what other modalities of life and systems of understanding it has replaced. Topics of discussion will include: tradition and nativism, enlightenment and nostalgia, imperialist, nationalist and communist ideologies, urban space and culture, gender roles, changing conceptions of private life, and aesthetics of commitment.

Hosting University: University of Michigan

Academic Calendar: Unless specified by the course instructor, the course will follow the host campus' academic calendar.

Participating Universities: Penn State University, Michigan State University

North Korea (DPRK): History, Literature, Film

Course Number: ALL 3920-002 (UMN), ASIAN 380.003 (U-M), EALC 199 (UIUC)

Times: Tuesday/Thursday 11:00-12:30 (CT)

Instructor: Travis Workman

In this course we learn how to interpret critically the literature, film, and media produced within and about the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, from its establishment in 1948 to the present day. We focus on questions of revolution and democracy, the Stalinist political formation, and on the ways that literature and visual culture create and recreate "North Korea" as a fantasy space. Students learn the history of North Korea as well as how to analyze its cultural products. There is also an emphasis on South Korean and American depictions of the country.

Hosting University: University of Minnesota

Academic Calendar: Unless specified by the course instructor, the course will follow the host campus' academic calendar.

Participating Universities: University of Michigan

Introduction to Modern Korean Culture: Modern Period  |  Korea and the Modern World

Course Number: ASIAN271 (U-M), SS13-ASN291-301 (MSU)

Times: Tuesday/Thursday 2:30-4:00

Instructor: Youngju Ryu

   
Korea’s twentieth century unfolded against the backdrop of violent political shifts caused by colonialism, civil war, authoritarianism, and democratization. This course is a survey of that history, from the end of the dynastic period to the present. In just one century, how did Korea go from a Confucian monarchy that prized an agrarian way of life to a neoliberal democracy with an export-led, technology-driven economy (at least in the south)? What are the enduring consequences of this transformation in the realms of politics and society, as well as culture and the arts? In addressing these questions, our emphasis will be on contemporary South Korea. A number of questions drawn from seemingly baffling headlines in recent or current news will structure our inquiry and serve as the points of entry. Recurrent in our examinations will be the theme of nationalism, both as it emerges in Korea’s transition from a dynastic polity to a modern nation-state and as it continues to impact the enduring relationship between historical memory and cultural constructions of identity. The aim of this course is not simply to develop familiarity with the broad sweep of modern Korean history and/or major themes of Korean culture from the outside, but to find creative ways to understand the workings of contemporary Korean society from within the complexities of its own logics and historical pasts.

Hosting University: University of Michigan

Participating University: Michigan State University

Human Rights, Anticolonialism, and the Global Cold War

Course Number: History 698.002

Times: Wednesday 4:00-7:00

Instructors: Penny Von Eschen, Pamela Ballinger, in partnership with Dong-Choon Kim (Sung Kong Hoe University, Korea), Vjekoslav Perica (University of Rijeka, Croatia), and Marta Verginella (University of Ljubljana, Slovenia)

This one-time course offering provides an exciting opportunity to explore new frameworks and sources for understanding the historical period conventionally labeled the “Cold War” while simultaneously engaging in dialogue and exchange with overseas faculty partners and their students.  Over the course of the semester we will conduct virtual classes with: Dong-Choon Kim (Sociology, Sung Kong Hoe University, Korea), Vjekoslav Perica (History, University of Rijeka, Croatia), and Marta Verginella (History, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia) along with their students. Professor Kim and Perica will also visit our classes as noted on the syllabus. We will have several additional guest speakers. Funded by a Rackham Global Engagement Grant, the course offers a unique opportunity to develop projects in the context of broad international engagements; it also offers a hybrid between a research seminar in which students focus on producing their own original field paper and graduate reading or topics seminar.  The course is designed to support research papers while offering the flexibility to opt for a historiographical (or field appropriate) readings paper.  Exploring the intersections of multiple dynamics, the course is intended to accommodate a wide range of research topics across the long twentieth century.  Because we are focused on developing student research projects and on quality of discussion with overseas partners, we emphasize an introduction to diverse analytic frames and the quantityof our reading will be less than that of a typical readings course (averaging three-four chapters/essays per week). Organized across the winter semester of 2013, the course will also offer a capstone conference in September 2013, where students will have the opportunity to present their work virtually and in some cases, in person, to our collaborators and other colleagues

Introduction to Korean Civilization: the Premodern Period (U-M)

Premodern Korean History and Culture in Global Contexts (MSU)

Course Number: ASIAN270 (U-M), GSAH 200; sec 301 (MSU)

Times: Monday/Wednesday 1:00-2:30

Instructor: Juhn Ahn
 

This course will serve as a general introduction to Korean history and culture from earliest times to the nineteenth century. A broad historical overview of the various social, economic, political, and religious traditions in premodern Korea will be accompanied by a brief but in-depth discussion of, among other things, the sense of time, space, history, language, body, self, and salvation that we find in the institutions, ideas, and practices of these traditions. Topics to be discussed in this course also include the relation between state, family, gender, and class. Students will be asked to explore these and other topics by applying a context-sensitive reading and critical analysis of the material that will be covered in this course. There are no prerequisites, but some background in the study of history and culture is recommended. Readings will include both primary material in translation and secondary scholarship.

Hosting University: University of Michigan

Participating University: Michigan State University