The Korean peninsula is increasingly entering the public consciousness. In just a few generations, South Korea has transformed from an agricultural nation into one of Asia’s wealthiest countries, known for high tech innovation and global trade, with several global brands in the forefront. The Nordics are also becoming increasingly familiar with Korea’s rich culture through food trends, K-pop, and the many award-winning films that have been shown in cinemas worldwide in recent years.
North Korea, on the other hand, has as it seems taken a different path. The conflict with the West and South Korea, along with recent reports of North Korean soldiers in Russia’s war in Ukraine, also draw the world’s attention, but for entirely different reasons.
Sadly, I do not read at all as much as I should and would have liked to. But this autumn I have read two novels, or one and a half because I am only halfway through the second: I do not bid farewell. Few in Sweden have missed that this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature goes to South Korea and Han Kang. The other book, which I have finished, and liked a lot, is Pachinko, by Min Jee Lee. There is so much more, and it is making an impact on many of us – on me certainly.
Highlighting contemporary Korea, as the Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies does today with “Korea Day: Nordic Research in Korean Studies,” is an important task for academia. The need for knowledge is enormous and spans many areas: politics, economy, culture, history, language, demography, innovation, and geopolitics, to name a few.
The Joint Faculties of Humanities and Theology are very happy to now have an associate senior lecturer in Korean Studies, Youngeun Koo. The position is partly funded by the Korea Foundation. This makes it possible for us to build the deep expertise on Korea that Lund University has been lacking. I met Youngeun during our recruitment process, and I was impressed. Moreover, I sometimes find myself pondering on the research questions she poses about the international adoption industry, that formed bonds not least between Sweden and Korea.
Lund University is a truly international university seeking to establish robust networks with the world’s leading research institutions. We hope to cooperate and form important networks within the Nordic countries within Korean studies – together with you. Copenhagen, Oslo, Helsinki, Stockholm, Turku, and Lund. We are surprisingly strong independently – and especially in the humanities and social sciences – together we could form a a world-leading partnership in many areas of the humanities and social sciences.
I wish you the best of luck with this conference. I would have loved to stay and listen. But that is seldom possible for a Dean, unfortunately. I hope that the meeting will be productive and a brilliant start for Youngeun in Lund and for Korean Studies at Lund University. /Johannes
