Nordic-Baltic Korean Studies Days

The Nordic Korean Studies Days (NKSD) were founded by the universities of Copenhagen, Helsinki, Oslo, Stockholm, and Turku. Due to its huge success, this international teaching collaboration was expanded to include teachers and students from universities in the Baltics. The (new) Nordic-Baltic Korean Studies Days (NBKSD) are co-organized by scholars from the universities in Copenhagen, Helsinki, Kaunas, Oslo, Riga, Stockholm, Trondheim, and Turku. It is an intensive Korean Studies course covering different disciplines such as history, cultural studies, anthropology, sociology and political science.

The Nordic-Baltic Korean Studies Days (NBKSD, 5 ECTS) create synergies of the rich knowledge and academic competence dispersed over small Korean studies units in the Nordic and Baltic countries,  strengthen teaching collaboration between the participating universities, and further strengthen the academic community in the field of Korean studies. By combining various teaching and learning formats as well as innovative pedagogical approaches, the course provides multidisciplinary Korean studies including, but not limited to, humanities, social sciences and international relations.

Organizers in 2024: Sabine Burghart (University Lecturer, Turku), Erika Griučkaitytė (Vytautas Magnus University), Sonja Häussler (Professor, Stockholm), Zoran Lee Pecic (Associate Professor, Norwegian University of Science and Technology), Antti Leppänen (Researcher, Turku), Andrew Logie (Associate Professor, Helsinki), Ildze Šķestere (The University of Latvia), Vladimir Tikhonov (Professor, Oslo), Barbara Wall (Associate Professor, Copenhagen) 

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"... great topics, great teachers ! I feel lucky to have been able to learn from some of the best scholars within Korean Studies"

"This was a good opportunity to learn about a variety of Korea-related topics ... [and] to make new connections with like-minded students"

"[The] NKSD has been one of the highlights of my studies and helped me feel like part of a broader Asian Studies community."

"It is a great course ..."

"This was an amazing experience, I learned a lot."

"Go for it! Super interesting stuff..." 

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The next Nordic-Baltic Korean Studies Days will be organised in 2025.

 

The Nordic Korean Studies Days in the news:

Dunbar, Jon. 'Nordic colleges host Korean Studies Days'. The Korea Times, 9 March 2022 

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Previous NKSD

2024 NBKSD

NBKSD 2024 was held from March 4th to March 8th, 2024 at the University of Copenhagen. 

 

The principal motivation of the course was to enable students with an interest in Korean Studies to meet and study alongside their peers in order to develop a pan-Nordic-Baltic network and sense of community.

Students gained time with Korean Studies research and teaching faculty from other institutes helping to diversify their regular curriculum and learning opportunities. For teachers, it was similarly a chance to collaborate with their colleagues and students.

The Nordic-Baltic Korean Studies Days is a co-taught course organized between Korean Studies faculty of Nordic (and newly) Baltic institutions including the universities of Helsinki, Turku, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Oslo, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (Trondheim), Vytautas Magnus University (Kaunas), and The University of Latvia. It was generously funded by Nordplus that supports educational cooperation throughout Nordic and Baltic states. This was the fourth Nordic, and first Nordic-Baltic Korean Studies Days!

 

In addition to workshops and talks, the students participated in one of three training courses according to their interests.

  • Silla Exhibition Training, where students created a plan for a museum exhibition showcasing artifacts from the Silla period.
  • Transmedia Storytelling in East Asia and Game Jam on The Journey to the West with a Korean twist, where students created a text-based adventure game based on the classic story of Journey to the West
  • Discussion group in Korean, where students were able to hone their Korean speaking skills by discussing Korean diaspora.

 

Workshops:

  • John Lee (Durham University): The Sylvan Local: The Pine Protection Spirits' n Kye in Late Chosŏn Korea, 1700–1900
  • Zoran Lee Pecic (NTNU): Shamans and nativism: postcolonial trauma in Spirits' Homecoming (2016) and Manshin: Ten Thousand Spirits (2013)

  • Marek Zemánek (Charles University) & Thapakorn Kamnerdsiri  (Thammasat University): Religion and Translation: Korean Buddhism in Monastic Biographies

  • Liora Sarfati (Tel Aviv University): Affective Protest Symbols: Public Dissent in the Mass Commemoration of the Sewŏl Ferry’s Victims in Seoul

 

Book talks:

  • Vladimir Tikhonov (University of Oslo): The Red Decades: Communism as Movement and Culture in Korea, 1919-1945

  • Younghan Cho (Hankuk University of Foreign Studies): Global Sports Fandom in South Korea 

  • Se-Mi Oh (University of Michigan): City of Sediments: A History of Seoul in the Age of Colonialism 

  • Olga Fedorenko (Seoul National University): Flowers of Capitalism: South Korean Advertising at a Crossroads 

  • Gabriel Jonsson (University of Stockholm): Human Rights and Democratic Consolidation in South Korea  

 

Presentations:

  • Martin Gehlmann (Ruhr University Bochum): “Student Life during Chosŏn Times“  

  • Soo Ryon Yoon (Sungkonghoe University): “Korean Performance through the Inter-Asia Lens: Introduction”

  • CedarBough Saeji (Pusan National University): “Dressing Up in the Korean Past: An Analysis of Hanbok Wearing as Play Informed by Popular Culture” 

  • Sonja Häussler (University of Stockholm): “Intellectuals Campaigning in Sweden for the Recognition of the DPRK”

2022 NKSD

The 2022 NKSD were organized as a 5-day intensive course and hosted by the University of Copenhagen, 7-11 March. The course comprised online talks, workshops and transferable skills-oriented training as well as a student-organized roundtable.

The computer games made during the game jam were The Journey to Graduation (by Team Monkey), The Ugly Piglet (by Team Pigsy) and Journey to the West (by Team Tripitaka).

 

The online talks were recorded and can be accessed on YouTube:

Main teachers: Prof. Dr. Vladimir Tikhonov (University of Oslo), Prof. Dr. Sonja Häussler (University of Stockholm), Dr. Gabriel Jonsson (University of Stockholm), Dr. Barbara Wall (University of Copenhagen), Dr. Myunghee Lee (NIAS), Dr. Sangpil Jin (University of Copenhagen), Dr. Andrew Logie (University of Helsinki), Dr. Antti Leppänen (University of Turku) and Dr. Sabine Burghart (CEAS, University of Turku).

 

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2021 NKSD

In 2021, the NKSD are organized as a 12-week course (5cr) and hosted by CEAS, University of Turku. The course covers different disciplines such as history, cultural studies, anthropology, sociology and political science. 

The 2021 course includes a great variety of topics such as The Making and Remaking Silla Origins, "Red feminism" and Social and political radicalism during the colonial Era, Socio-cultural monuments, moments and movements in South Korea (1950-1980), Contemporary Literature, The depiction of Single Mothers in South Korean Literature, Film and TV-dramas, inter-Korean relations, the Nordic countries relations with the Koreas, the self-employed in South Korea and more...

2019 NKSD

The 2019 NKSD that were hosted by the University of Copenhagen covered various topics including pseudo historiography and “history wars”, the communist movement in colonial Korea, folklore studies in North Korea, transmedia ghost story telling, inter-Korean relations, South Korea’s foreign aid and family in South Korea.

Teachers: Sonja Häussler (Professor, Stockholm), Vladimir Tikhonov (Professor, Oslo), Gabriel Jonsson (Senior Lecturer, Stockholm), Andrew Logie (Assistant Professor, Helsinki), Barbara Wall (Assistant Professor, Copenhagen), Antti Leppänen (Researcher, Turku), and Sabine Burghart (University Lecturer, Turku).

Main sponsor of the 2019 NKSD: The Korea Foundation