[KS] Fulbright Forum ~ September 2nd with Joji Kohjima

executive.assistant executive.assistant at fulbright.or.kr
Thu Aug 18 01:08:41 EDT 2011


*Fulbright Forum Presents...*//
//


        /"Hansen's Disease in Korean Society: Social otherization and
        integration in the 20^th century." //by Joji Kohjima/

7:00 P.M. on Friday, September 2nd, 2011
R.S.V.P. by Friday, August, 26th, 2011


The Korean-American Educational Commission warmly welcomes you to our 
seventh Fulbright Forum of the 2010-2011 program year with 2010 
Fulbright Junior Researcher Joji Kohjima.

Open to all, the Fulbright Forum serves as a periodic gathering for the 
Fulbright family at large, including past and present grantees and 
friends of the Commission. To R.S.V.P., 
please<https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?pli=1&hl=en_US&formkey=dHBNeEFvTm9RTkprSjQwWDFtMVQwZVE6MQ#gid=0>CLICK 
HERE 
<https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?pli=1&hl=en_US&formkey=dHBNeEFvTm9RTkprSjQwWDFtMVQwZVE6MQ#gid=0> 
and complete the registration form. You may also R.S.V.P. via e-mail to 
Lisette Garza (executive.assistant at fulbright.or.kr 
<mailto:executive.assistant at fulbright.or.kr>) by Friday, August 26th. 
Regrets need not reply.

This month's Forum will be held at 7:00 P.M. sharp on Friday, September 
2nd on the 6th floor of KAEC's Mapo-gu building. Following the 
presentation, a light reception will be held. Please visit the KAEC 
website for maps and directions (http://www.fulbright.or.kr/xe/map).

    * To respect both the audience and presenters, guests are asked to
      please mute or turn off all cell phones before entering.

    * To respect both the audience and presenters, late arrivals will
      not be allowed to enter after 7:05 P.M.


  _Summary_

Hansen's disease in Korea historically existed at endemic levels until 
effective drugs became available in the 1930s to 1950s.  It has been 
referenced in Korean literature for centuries even including some Chosun 
era mask dances.  In the 20th century, Hansen's disease patients became 
what professor Jeong Keun-Shik of Seoul National University refers to as 
"the most significant social other" in ethnically homogeneous Korean 
society.  They have alternately been used as symbols of national shame, 
Christian salvation, Japanese imperial benevolence, and finally Korea's 
national "han," or sorrow.
Joji Kohjima's research deals with the efforts of Hansens's disease 
patients to tell their own story, and to seek restitution for their 
treatment under Japanese colonialism and post-colonial Korean 
governments.   He has been researching the social and medical conditions 
of Hansen's disease in modern Korea in conjunction with several 
institutions including the Catholic University Medical School's Leprosy 
Center in Seoul, the 518 Memorial Hall at Jeonnam National University, 
Aeyangwon hospital in Yeosu, and Sorokdo National Leprosy Hospital in 
Sorok Island, Jeollanamdo.  This forum will explore leprosy in Korean 
society as a phenomenon originating at the microscopic level of bacteria 
but extending to the level of social constructs in the discrimination, 
otherization and isolation faced by leprosy patients.  Largely 
originating in Japanese colonial policy, patients have historically 
faced quarantine, forced labor, and forced sterilization as they were 
caught in the triangle of Japanese colonial government, missionaries, 
and an often hostile Korean population. __

__
__*Biography*__
Joji Wilson Kohjima is originally from Tacoma, Washington.  He is the 
great grandson of Robert Manton Wilson, an American missionary who 
worked as a doctor on Hansen's disease in Korea from 1907 to 1941.  Joji 
graduated in International Studies from the University of Washington 
where he also studied pre-medicine with a focus on biochemistry.  He 
will apply for medical school to begin in 2012.  He hopes to continue 
studies in medical anthropology in conjunction with medical school.


----
Lisette Garza
Korean-American Educational Commission
168-15 Yomni-dong, Mapo-gu |Seoul 121-874

T:  +82-2-3275-4004
F:  +82-2-3275-4028
M: +82-10-3319-9665
http://www.fulbright.or.kr <http://www.fulbright.or.kr/>



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