The 2011 Committee on Korean Studies (CKS) General Meeting in Honolulu (see “Report from Honolulu”) made it clear that members want the CKS to continue to exist and play a role as an important site for Koreanists for information sharing, intellectual communication, advocacy, and community building. With that mandate, over the years the Executive Board conducted the following business.
- Panels: The Board organized two CKS-sponsored panels for the 2012 Toronto meeting (see “Introducing the Premiere of CKS-sponsored Panels”). Credit for the conception and execution of this back-to-back panel idea goes to two board members, Todd Henry and Sonja Kim.
- Election: The Board conducted election to replace departing board members, Michael Pettid (chair) and Donald Clark. For the process, see “Report on Executive Board elections.” Through the election Sem Vermeersch and Kelley Jeong joined the Board for three-year terms starting in the 2011–2012 year.
- Website: The Board created a new website for the CKS, which doubles as an e-newsletter (www.koreanstudies.org). This change was prompted by the University of Hawai’i’s decision in 2011 not to continue its support of the CKS website, newsletter, and election businesses. The Board took this as an opportunity to build an easy-to-manage electronic forum that can solicit more active participation by members. A good domain name (koreanstudies.org) has been secured and the platform (WordPress) is relatively easy to manage by tech-savvy board members or volunteers.
Currently, the site mainly functions as an e-newsletter. Depending on what members want, however, it has potential to grow into a robust site, although it is unlikely that we will be able to hire a full-time web master. There is a space (Reminiscences) to share members’ experiences and memories of past CKS activities, and also a page titled Teaching, which can work as a site where members exchange syllabi, multimedia lists, and teaching tips and experiences. All the members of the Executive Board worked very hard on this, and we would like to hear from you about ways to improve on this initial version.
- Meetings: CKS chairs participate in NEAC meetings representing the CKS and in November 2011 Todd Henry attended the NEAC meeting and evaluated funding applications on behalf of the chair, Hwasook Nam, who was teaching in Japan at the time. Hwasook Nam will represent the CKS at the March 2012 NEAC meeting in Toronto. The chair also joins the planning meeting of the annual “World Congress of Korean Studies,” organized by the Academy of Korean Studies (AKS) together with Korean Studies associations worldwide. This year a new board member Sem Vermeersch attended the planning meeting on behalf of the CKS.
submitted by Hwasook Nam