Introduction of Hahn Moo-Sook Colloquium
The Hahn Moo-Sook Colloquium in the Korean Humanities series was established in 1995 with an endowment established by the gift of the Hahn Moo-Sook Foundation in Seoul. Hahn Moo-Sook (1918-1993) is one of Korea’s most honored writers, and the Colloquium series upholds and recreates her spirit of openness, curiosity, and commitment to education. In the capital of the United States?a very political town?where programs on policy-oriented current affairs reign, the HMS Colloquium series at GW purports to provide a forum for academic discussion of the Korean humanities, as Korea’s presence has been increasingly felt on the international arena in various cultural and academic subfields. In this meeting participants are invited to enjoy an interdisciplinary and international dialog on Korean arts, history, language, literature, thought and religious systems in the context of East Asia and the world.
The HMS Colloquium in the Korean Humanities series has become one of the fine traditions at GW. Various organizations within and beyond GW, including the Korean Embassy, different departments of the Smithsonian Institution, and other universities in the Washington, DC metropolitan area, have joined hands with HMS Colloquium to organize programs in the Korean humanities. GW’s Sigur Center for Asian Studies has been a constant sponsor since 1998. Each of our very popular meetings has received enthusiastic reviews from those who have attended it, including the speakers, all of whom have been world-renowned leaders in a particular field of their talks.
We have videotaped every meeting, and since 1999, we have also produced a monograph each year with the papers and commentaries presented at the colloquium, slightly revised to reflect audience input. The previous year, a special conference was organized to discuss Korean women’s creativity from the 15th century to the 20th century, to commemorate the 5th anniversary of Hahn Moo-Sook’s passing and the 15th anniversary of the Korean Language and Culture Program at GW. The resulting volume, Creative Women of Korea: The Fifteenth through the Twentieth Centuries, is published in 2003 by M. E. Sharpe in Armonk, New York, one of the major publishers in the United States.
R. Richard Grinker (Professor of Anthropology, Human Sciences, and International Affairs), Kirk W. Larsen (Korea Foundation Assistant Professor of History), and Young-Key Kim-Renaud (Professor of Korean Language and Culture and International Affairs, and Chair of the East Asian Languages and Literatures Department) are co-conveners of the annual meeting.
Typically we choose as the meeting day a Saturday in the month of October. Hahn Moo-Sook was born on October 25, and we usually enjoy beautiful weather around that time.
The above writing is written by Young-Key Kim-Renaud, Chair Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures Professor of Korean Language and Culture and International Affairs The George Washington University.
If you want more information, visit http://www.gwu.edu/~eall/specialevents.html
