The Korea Society presents six of the world’s top experts in Korean studies in a new lecture series called “Korea In-Depth.” Dive deep into the history, politics, and arts of a dynamic country, close ally, and important trading partner of the United States.

Each lecture in the six-week series will feature a different scholar who will address thought-provoking developments in contemporary issues, literature, history, art, music, and architecture.

Anyone fascinated by the explosive growth of East Asia in world affairs and culture will benefit from this first-ever lecture series. Come and take in all six lectures—or however many you’d like—to deepen your awareness of Korea and its impact on Asia and the world.

All lectures will be in English, except for the final lecture, which will be delivered in Korean (English interpretation will be provided).

Each of the first five courses will be two hours long, with a ninety-minute lecture and thirty-minute Q&A period. The hour-long final lecture with thirty-minute Q&A on March 17 will be followed by a short end-of-series program.

Members, $20 per lecture. Non-members, $30 per lecture. Enroll in all six lectures, and pay only $100 (members) and $125 (non-members—one-year membership included). Student discount available ($5 per lecture).

Charles K. Armstrong (PhD, Chicago) is the Korea Foundation Professor of Korean Studies in the Social Sciences in the Department of History and director of the Center for Korean Research at Columbia University. An expert on the modern history of Korea and East Asia, he has authored and edited several books on contemporary Korea, including The Koreas (2007), Korea at the Center: Dynamics of Regionalism in Northeast Asia (2006), Korean Society: Civil Society, Democracy, and the State (2nd ed., 2006), The North Korean Revolution, 1945–1950 (2003), and numerous journal articles and book chapters.

Ann Choi Wan (PhD, UCLA) taught for many years in the Department of Asian Languages & Cultures at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. She has published numerous articles on modern Korean poetry. She is a former Stegner Fellow, and her poems have appeared in journals and anthologies (Ploughshares, Premonitions, The Random House Treasury of Favorite Poems From Cities Around the World). She is currently working on various writing projects.

Gari Ledyard (PhD, Columbia) is King Sejong Professor Emeritus of Korean Studies and director emeritus of the Center for Korean Research at Columbia University. He is the author of The Korean Language Reform of 1446 (1998), The Dutch Come to Korea (1971), and many other monographs, articles, and reviews related to Korean and East Asian history. At Columbia he was chairman of the Department of East Asian Languages & Cultures and founder of the Center for Korean Research. He retired in 2000, but remains active in research and publication.

Cornelius Chang (PhD, Columbia) was professor at Columbia University and director of the Graduate Program in History of Art and Archaeology of China. In 1979 he was a member of the US Cultural Delegation to China after the Cultural Revolution. He was invited by the Chinese government to teach graduate courses in the history of art and archaeology in Chinese at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, where he was visiting professor (1980–82). Dr. Chang has given presentations on Chinese art in China, Germany, Hungary, Mexico, South Korea, and the United States and has been published in the National Palace Museum Quarterly (Taipei) and Meishu Yenjiu (Beijing). His latest work, “Body of Bliss: Radiant Holiness in Eastern Pre-Christian Scriptural and Monumental Sources and the Imperial Transmission of the Mandorla along the Silk Route to Byzantium,” is forthcoming in Miscellanea Mediaevalia (2012).

Robert C. Provine (PhD, Harvard) is Professor in the School of Music at the University of Maryland. In addition to the PhD, he holds a BA and two MA degrees from Harvard University. He researches the music of East Asia (China, Korea, and Japan), with a particular focus on Korean traditional music. He taught from 1978 to 2000 at the University of Durham in the United Kingdom, where he rose from Lecturer to full Professor and Chair of the Department of Music. He has served as President of the Association for Korean Studies in Europe (1993–95) and as President of the Association for Korean Music Research (1996–2000). He contributed the country article “Korea” and numerous shorter entries to the second edition of the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (2001), and he is the author of Essays on Sino-Korean Musicology:  Early Sources for Korean Ritual Music (1988) and many articles in varied academic journals.

Bong Hee Jeon (PhD, Seoul National) is a professor in the Department of Architecture and a researcher at the Institute of Historical Research at Seoul National University. He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on the architectural history of Korea and Asia as well as contemporary architecture and urbanism. In addition to publishing numerous scholarly articles, Professor Jeon has authored or coauthored several books, including A Guide to Korean Traditional Architecture (2006), 3 Bay by 3 Bay (2006), Beijing Shiheyuan and Hutong (2003), and Architectural Heritage of Korea 9: South Chŏlla Province (2002), and has given presentations in China, Italy, Japan, South Korea, and the United States. He was a Harvard-Yenching Visiting Scholar from 2003 to 2004 and is currently a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at the University of California, Berkeley.