[KS] Korean nationalism & Language of NK propaganda – request for help to find sources

[Marta]

Dear List Members,

I must apologize as this is my first message and already I am asking for some help, please excuse me.

I recently received B.A. in Political Science (from Warsaw University, located in the capital of Poland). My thesis was entitled „Art as a mean of political propaganda in North Korea”. Now, as a M.A. student, I am planning to prepare next work. Due to the fact, that since October I will join faculty of Korean Philology additionally, I also have to write next B.A. thesis. This time I have an idea of following subjects: 
1. for M.A. thesis – „Contemporary Korean nationalism in the DPRK”
2. B.A. – „Linguistic aspects of written propaganda in North Korea” (from typically linguistic point of view, not concerning political science)

I began research to find materials about these topics, for example by searching books on Web portals, e.g. Amazon or AbeBooks. I have already read or at least purchased books on Korean nationalism and propaganda written, among others, by Bryan Myers, Andrei Lankov, Bruce Cumings, Gi-Wook Shin, etc.

However, I do not have any idea how to find articles and dissertations (i.e. B.A./M.A. theses on similar topics, prepared on universities around the world), which are hard to obtain for non-scholars and publicly unavailable on the Web. Could you give me any help or suggestions, how to look for such works?

Do you know any researchers, who are specialized in following topics to whom I could write via e-mail for advice? Or any good articles or documents regarding exactly subjects I am interested in?

By the way, I would like to ask you about one more thing... Is it actually appropriate to ask scholars for their works directly, if I want them to make their texts available for me (by sending via e-mail, in .pdf format)? I am very afraid that I may be construed as impolite...

I can read Korean that I learn since 3 years now, but I prefer English and generally I am rather looking for English-language materials.

I would be very grateful for any help from you.

Best regards,
Marta
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