We are pleased to announce Korean Studies Programme’s Honorary Visiting Professor, Professor Heonik Kwon’s visit this month. With a generous donation from the YWF Foundation, we are able to host Professor Kwon for two weeks. In addition to his teaching activities for this scheme, Professor Kwon will hold open office hours for the Faculty of Arts members and students.
Office: Rm 5.37, Run Run Shaw Tower, HKU Centennial Campus.
Date and Time: March 9 (Thur), 15:30-17:20 March 10 (Fri), 15:30-17:20 March 14 (Tue), 10:30-12:30, 15:30-17:20 March 15 (Wed), 10:30-12:30.
Please feel free to stop by in above slots. Below is a short bio of Professor Kwon:
Heonik Kwon is a Senior Research Fellow in Social Science and Distinguished Professor of Social Anthropology, Trinity College, University of Cambridge. He is also part of the Mega-Asia research group at Seoul National University Asia Center. A Fellow of the British Academy, Kwon’s prize-winning previous books include: Ghosts of War in Vietnam (2008), The Other Cold War (2010), and After the Korean War: An Intimate History (2020). His new book is Spirit Power: Politics and Religion in Korea’s American Century (2022, co-authored with Jun Hwan Park).
Kwon grew up in the neighborhood of Camp Walker, one of the United States military bases in South Korea, which was a Japanese air base before 1945. Long interested in everyday life in socialist societies and how the Cold War affected intimate human relations, he has conducted fieldwork both in a small-scale indigenous society (among nomadic reindeer hunter-herders in Far East Siberia, during the last years of the Soviet order) and in sites of large-scale historical upheavals (such as the post-war central Vietnam). More recently, his research has concentrated on memories of the Korean War.
If you have any questions, please contact Dr. Kim, Su Yun (suyunkim@hku.hk).