April 14-23, 2006

This program was implemented in Korea for a group of ten participants accompanied by Yong Jin Choi, senior director of Korean studies at The Korea Society, and Mark Peterson, professor of Korean studies at Brigham Young University. The ten participants consisted of American educators from across the professional spectrum: six K-12 teachers, one professional storyteller/writer, one administrator from a state department of education, one professor and one university dean-and across the country. This diverse group traversed Korea from the northwest to the southeastern coast, visiting five major cities: Seoul, Suwon, Ch'ongju, Kyongju and Pohang. The program began in Seoul with lectures on Korean politics, economics, art and the Silk Road interspersed with guided tours of Leeum Museum and Kyongbok Palace. The tour continued with the group traveling south, making a stopover at the Samsung Electronics History Hall in Suwon as well as at Hwasong Fortress, a U.N. World Heritage Site in Kyonggi province from the Choson Dynasty. An overnight stay was arranged by Samsung at its Human Resources Center in Yongin. The next day, the tour continued with a visit to the Early Printing Museum in Ch'ongju, where the first moveable type, invented in Korea in 1377, was on display. Next, participants visited the Haien Buddhist Monastery where the group joined Korean worshippers in a religious ritual and visited the repository of the Tripitaka Koreana before traveling to Kyongju, the historic city of Silla's golden age, for the night. The group visited the National Museum of Kyongju, as well as several historical and cultural sites, in order to learn about the development of Korea's Buddhist heritage during the period of Silla state formation. Afterwards, the group visited the nearby Yangdong traditional village for a two-hour, informal discussion with Jirak Lee, the clan elder. This discussion provided a unique opportunity to understand how Confucianism continues to influence rural Korean communities. Before returning to Seoul, the group toured the Pohang Steel Mill. The group returned to the United States, from Seoul, on April 23.

2006 Spring Fellows:

October 9-20, 2005 

This program was implemented in Korea for a group of eleven participants accompanied by the program coordinator, Yong Jin Choi, and Mark Peterson of Brigham Young University, who as usual served in the capacity of a docent. It was the 10th annual program in this series. The program got underway in Seoul with lectures on Korean politics, art and economy, issues in ancient Korean history (Koguryo) and geography. Interspersed with the lectures were guided tours of Leeum Museum and Kyongbok Palace. The group then went on the road, traveling south with a stopover at the Samsung Electronics History Hall in Suwon, the Hoam Museum and Heewon, a traditional Korean garden, in Yongin. An overnight stay was arranged at the Samsung Human Resources Center in Yongin. The tour continued the next day with a visit to the Early Printing Museum in Ch'ongju, where the first moveable type invented in Korea in 1377 is exhibited. The group then continued on to Youngnam University in Kyongsan near Taegu. They visited a folk village in the vicinity and experienced an overnight stay at an ancient Confucian Academy known Kugye Sowon that is named after the famous Confucian scholar U Tak (1263-1342) of the Koryo Kingdom. Mark Peterson gave a lecture on the importance of Confucian heritage to Korean culture in the hall of the Confucian Academy. The group departed the next morning for Haein Buddhist Monastery. At the monastery they joined Korean worshippers in a Buddhist ritual and visited the repository of the Tripitaka Koreana. The group stayed overnight at a hermitage associated with the monastery. The next day, they moved on to the Yangdong traditional village in nearby Kyongju where they had a two hour long informal discussion with Jirak Lee, the clan elder. This discussion provided a unique opportunity to get a contemporary perspective on the relevance of the Confucian heritage and to learn about his role in a functioning rural community as a young clan leader. After having lunch at a traditional rural restaurant, the group visited Kyongju City, the capital of the ancient Silla Kingdom where they toured the Kyongju National Museum. Jong Wook Lee of Sogang University in Seoul assumed the duties of a docent during the next two days, which were spent in Kyongju. While visiting the historic sires, he lectured informally on the developmental stage of Silla's state formation, its subsequent history and various aspects of Silla society. He also led a walking tour of Namsan, a mountain with many historic remains from the Silla period, which was an unforgettable experience for all the fellows. The next day the fellows took a flight to Jeju, an island off the southern coast of the Korean peninsula, to participate in a conference organized by Cheju National University entitled "The First International Conference for the Globalization of Jeju." The conference drew over 100 attendees from academia and local government. In the morning session, the fellows had an opportunity to learn a great deal about Jeju, including its history and culture, industry, and distinctive tradition of women divers. In the afternoon, the group returned the favor by offering their own reflections on the theme of the conference: Ford M. Cochran gave a presentation entitled "Iceland: Isolated but Connected to the World;" James Millward spoke on "Globalization on the Peripheries on China;" Linda Menton on "The Island Edge of America;" and Mark Peterson offered his views on "Jeju Island and Its Multiple Roles in Korean History." The next day and a half was spent touring major sites on Jeju that illustrate its major attractions. As usual, the in-country costs of the program were covered by the Korea Overseas Information Service. The Korea Society covered all the administrative costs of the program in the U.S. as well as the international travel costs of the program coordinator and the docent with the funding provided by the grant from The Freeman Foundation. The expenses incurred for the visit to Jeju, a first for this program, were covered by the organizers of the conference held at Cheju National University.