[KS] can Asian Americans have a voice in Asian Studies?

Horace H. Underwood hhu at fulbright.or.kr
Tue Sep 30 03:13:10 EDT 2003


Re: [KS] can Asian Americans have a voice in Asian StuPerhaps the statement
below is true in Europe - I don't know.  For the past six years in
Fulbright, however, the American graduate students and tenured scholars of
Korean studies who have received Fulbright grants to do research in Korea
have largely been Korean American.

Someone would have to do a survey of white male American professors married
to Korean women to find their motivations, but in my own case I would not
readily accept the idea that the motivation of my wife and myself in
adopting our Korean daughters was to secure access to Korean language and
culture.

Horace H. Underwood

  -----Original Message-----
  From: Koreanstudies-bounces at koreaweb.ws
[mailto:Koreanstudies-bounces at koreaweb.ws]On Behalf Of Tobias Hübinette
  Sent: Tuesday, September 30, 2003 2:55 PM
  To: Korean Studies Discussion List
  Subject: Re: [KS] can Asian Americans have a voice in Asian Studies?


  Korean studies is still a white reservation

  The minuscule academic field of Korean studies encompassing less than 40
Western university departments outside North and South Korea and made up of
a mixture of classical Orientalism and Cold War area studies is not only
heavily male-dominated, but also a very white scene even if most
undergraduate students are second generation immigrant or adopted Koreans.
As tenures and professorships continue to be passed on to white males of
whom the absolute majority are either married to a Korean woman or has
adopted a Korean child to secure a comfortable access to Korean language and
culture, ethnic Koreans are confined to the racialized roles of native
informants and speakers.


--



  Tobias Hübinette a.k.a. Lee Sam-dol

  Ph.D. candidate in Korean Studies
  Department of Oriental Languages
  Stockholm University
  SE-106 91 Stockholm
  Sweden

  Tel: 46-8-16 15 88
  Fax: 46-8-15 54 64
  E-mail: tobias at orient.su.se

  Presentations:
  Department of Oriental languages: www.orient.su.se/koreanskapersonal.html
  Info Portal Asia: www.sub.su.se:591/sidor/forskning/koreaforsk/tobias/
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