[KS] news re: the korean program at uc berkeley

[Christine Hong]

hello everyone,

in the wake of the surprisingly dismissive response (at least from some) generated by my alert three weeks ago concerning the plight of the korean program at berkeley, i debated whether or not to follow up with a response, if only to clarify some larger misconceptions out there which conflated berkeley's department of east asian languages and cultures and its center for korean studies.  

i'm writing, now, less to attempt to correct circulating misconceptions than to present you with heartening news concerning a movement that has blossomed here on the berkeley campus--a movement spearheaded by the ad hoc, student-based committee to save east asian languages and korean studies at berkeley.  in the past two weeks, students have mobilized en masse, in no small part because their interests, like those of the language lecturers, have been left out of the top-down administrative discussions that dealt disproportionately high budgetary damage to berkeley's ealc department.  although our advocacy was initially motivated by our desire to ensure the full protection of the existing korean program within ealc and to raise awareness of the lack of institutional will that has characterized the development of the korean program at berkeley, we have come to realize that the dire fate of korean as well as other many other asian languages at cal (including chinese, japanese, thai, tagalog, hindi, and tamil) enables us to raise a spectrum of under-discussed issues of inequity particular to this campus and arguably elsewhere.  for one, we--and many institutional actors behind the scenes--have been advocating for a robust asian languages curriculum that speaks to
berkeley's 45% ethnic asian student demographics and to its identity as
a california public institution and a pacific rim university.  without question, central to the advocacy and recent actions (including a press conference and a student rally) of our student-based coalition has been our aim to bring into view the ghettoization of korean within berkeley's ealc department and to assert the non-negotiability of a strong korean program within a vibrant east asian languages curriculum.

we've also had an opportunity to highlight the retrograde language lecturer/literature professor labor hierarchy within this and other language and culture departments that, by default, prioritizes literature professors over language lecturers.  this, of course, is the flipside of the non-heritage question discussed in recent postings--i.e., the necessity of non-heritage interest in korean studies to the viability of the field otherwise prone to what one writer deemed its balkanization.  when budget crises loom, it bears noting, the institutional casualties quite frankly are less those (often) non-heritage interpreters of korean culture than the language lecturers who, by virtue of their non-permanent funding status, can claim little job security--this despite the fact that language instruction is typically the primary service offered by such departments to larger campus communities.  yet, just as few would dare suggest that literature professors are easily
replaceable, so too do we argue that berkeley's asian language
lecturers are not easily replaceable.  i want to add, here, that the korean language program at berkeley is absolutely top-notch, and the korean language lecturers are truly amongst the very best that i've encountered in my own language learning experience--at ucla, sogang university, and elsewhere.  i cannot speak highly enough of the berkeley sunsaengnims and the student testimonials that our student coalition gathered speak volumes about how deeply berkeley students value their chinese and japanese teachers, as well.

for both updated information (including calls to action, downloadable files, press coverage, etc.) on our movement and to add your voice to ours, please go to our blogspot: savekoreanstudies.blogspot.com.  to sign an online petition regarding the ealc budget cuts, please go to petition.berkeley.edu.  we greatly appreciate your support and your goodwill.

many thanks,
christine 


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