This is a summary of what was discussed at the General Meeting of the Committee on Korean Studies at the San Diego AAS meeting on March 29, 2013. The meeting was chaired by Todd Henry; the minutes were prepared by Youngju Ryu,
I. Welcoming remarks
II. Introduction of the Executive Board
– Outgoing members: Todd Henry (UC San Diego; current chair), Sonja Kim (SUNY Binghampton)
– Continuing members: Kelly Jeong (UC Riverside; new chair), SemVermeersch (Seoul National University)
– Incoming members: George Kallander (Syracuse University), Youngju Ryu (University of Michigan), Koen de Ceuster (Leiden University)
III. General Discussion
A. Korean Studies Representation in NEAC
– Currently only oneKoreanist is on NEAC Executive Committee (Charles Armstrong) in addition to theCKS chair
– Problem has been attributed to the difficulty in identifying and nominating Koreanists who would be known to and electable by the entire NEAC
– Problem attests to the wisdom of not disbanding CKS two years ago after its incorporation into NEAC
– At any given year, four Koreanists should be on the Committee including the CKS chair
– Try to ascertain how this happened and what needs to be done to ensure adequate representation for Korean Studies (who will do this?)
B. Sponsorship of Panels at AAS Annual Meetings
– CKS currently sponsors one panel at the annual conference
- the winner of the Palais Book Prize is invitedto organizea panel for the following year
- Sukyoung Kim (Illicit Utopias)will organize a panel next year
– CKS might look into sponsoring more panels in order to:
- highlight innovative sub-fields and methodologies
- appeal to a broader audience outside of the field
– CKS-sponsored panels must be submitted to the AAS Program Committee before the planning meeting in the fall
– Securing ideal time slots for Korean Studies panels
- Many Korean Studies panels were held concurrently in the 2013 conference
- May not be possible to get the Program Committee to pay attention
C. Mentoring Junior Faculty
– Getting Tenure
- Internal mentorship may be more important because of institutional differences in requirements and review process
– Publishing
- Broadly helpful across the entire field
- Workshop for turning dissertations into books
- Two already in place: SSRC, USC’s “Rising Stars”
- Focus should be on publishing journal articles
- Practical advice, information sharing, liaison with editors
D. Publishing in Journals
– Journal of Asian Studies, according to Jeff Wasserstrom
- 75 of 300 submissions sent out for peer review
- 25 of 75 reviewed articles accepted for publication
- “Don’t submit to JAS if you’re in a hurry”
- Article should be of interest to a reader “one discipline, one country, and one time period away”
– Korean Studies journals: ActaKoreana, Journal of Korean Studies, Korean Studies, Journal of Korean Religions
– Acta Koreanastruggling to attrac t quality submissions
– Information-sharing about publishing in disciplinary journals would be helpful
E. Holding a Conference Session on Publishing Journal Articles
– Workshop-style panel every year
- Rotate by discipline
- Panelists to include editors of specific journals who plan to be on site and authors who have recently published in these journals
- American Anthropological Association workshops as an example
– Panel to address:
- How to select the journal to which submit a particular article
- How to deal with reviews
- How to pitch Korea-interest articles to disciplinary journals
– May be held separately from AAS annual conference
– May double as a social gathering with catered food
– If held during AAS, a time slot between events, possibly an evening session, should be explored
– Approach Korea Foundation for funding to defray costs
- Honoraria for editors
- Catering
– Should be wary about overemphasizing the role of the editor; reviewers’ role more important
E. Renovating the Website
– Concept: “one-stop shop” that contains latest information about:
- Job announcements
- Postdoc fellowships
- Conference announcements
- List of recent publications in the field
- Teaching resources
- Undecided on the question of how much to share
- Shared materials may include syllabi, films, ppt slides, maps, translations
- Link to Korea Foundation’s collection of images on teaching about Korea
– Problems in Managing the Site
- No longer hosted by the University of Hawaii
- Regular updating imperative if the site is to be useful
- Site management cannot be tied to the Executive Board since board membership circulates out
– Proposed Solutions Regarding Site Management
- Hawaii may be able to re-host the site
- Ned Schulz will find out
- The update on recent publications should be linked to Hawaii’s ongoing “Korean History Bibliography” project
- Hire a graduate student with CKS funds to update the site info regularly
– Section on Organizational History
- Writing is underway
V. Announcements
A. 국제고려학회 (Don Baker)
– Based in Japan
– Brings together North Korean and South Korean scholars with Korean Studies scholars from around the world
– Supports the idea of scholarly dialogue undeterred by geopolitics
– Contact: Chan E. Park, President of the North American chapter
B. JAS Book Review (Seungsook Moon, Korean Books Editor, JAS)
– Journal solicits recent books; send review copies
– Journal is also looking for those willing to serve as book reviewers
– Contact email: semoon@jas.vassar.edu