[KS] Fulbright Forum, Friday, June 17--6:30 p.m.

[Dylan S. Davis]

Fulbright Forum!!

Fulbright in Seoul (the Korean American Educational Commission) is pleased
to invite you to attend the Fulbright Forum for June, which will be held on
Friday, June 17, 2005, at 6:30 p.m. at the Commission offices in Mapo.

This forum “The North Korean Defector through the Lenses of Women and
Literature” features Fulbright researchers Cathy Hong and Janet Kang.  They
will examine the North Korean community currently residing in South Korea,
but from different angles.  Their presentations will provide a better
understanding of this select group of people who have overcome innumerous
challenges and tragedies to start their lives over in South Korea.

Cathy Hong is a poet and journalist who graduated from Oberlin College and
Iowa Writer’s Workshop.  She will briefly discuss her project translating
the works of North Korean writers who have defected to South Korea.  She has
also invited a special guest, Choi Jin I, who is a North Korean writer, to
read the poems she wrote while she lived in Pyongyang.   Cathy Hong will
then read the English translations of Choi Jin I’s poems with a brief
explanation of her work.  Choi Jin I was a well known poet in North Korea
before she defected to China where she was a victim to female trafficking.
A few years afterwards, she escaped to South Korea and is now obtaining her
PhD in Women’s Studies at Ehwa University.  Her novel about her experiences
in North Korea and China will be published this summer.

Janet Kang, who graduated from Northwestern University’s Medill School of
Journalism and Georgetown University’s Master of Science in Foreign Policy
program, will examine North Korean female defectors (a special subset within
the defector community) currently residing in democratic and capitalistic
South Korea.  Because female defections currently outnumber male defections,
North Korean female defectors deserve greater attention.  Moreover, special
considerations need to be made, because often female defectors are victims
of gender-specific crimes, such as abuse, rape, and trafficking.  Those that
offer support to defectors, such as the South Korean government and the NGO
community, must take into account gender when producing a resettlement
program.  One positive move has been the establishment of a separate
all-female hanawon (the South Korean government’s short-term resettlement
program).  In addition, Ms. Kang will provide an overview of the challenges
confronting the defector community as a whole, and she will offer
recommendations on how to ease the North Koreans’ difficult task of
assimilation into South Korean society.

The presentation will be followed by a buffet reception.  If you plan to
attend the buffet, please R.S.V.P. to Dylan Davis at
executive.assistant at fulbright.or.kr
<mailto:executive.assistant at fulbright.or.kr>  so we can plan accordingly.
We hope many friends will come to enjoy the lecture, the discussion, and the
food.

Jai Ok Shim
Executive Director
Korean American Educational Commission (Fulbright)






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