[KS] Korea in Global History Call for Papers

[Fuess, Harald]

Dear Fellow Scholars of East Asia,
We are planning a substantial research conference on Korean history at Heidelberg University and expect a participation of about 50 historians and East Asian Studies scholars from Europe, the United States and Asia in line with our previous successful conferences on East Asia in Global History.
While we have already preselected and invited most presenters, we can still accommodate a few more papers central to the theme of the conference. If you are interested to present, please provide us with an abstract of 300 words by 1 March 2017 and let us know whether you would be interested in principle to be considered for the volume of about twelve revised papers to be submitted for review as an edited volume to a major publisher. We can cover transportation from within Europe up to 250 Euro or from outside of Europe of up to 1000 euro and three nights of accommodation in Heidelberg during the conference scheduled for 19-21 May 2017.
"KOREA IN GLOBAL HISTORY - The long nineteenth century and the Foreign Powers"
The long nineteenth century has received renewed scholarly attention as a key transformative period in global history for its accelerated engagement between Europe, America, Asia and Africa. Well-known concepts such as "modernity" and "globalization" have been enriched by debates over the existence, causes, and consequences of a "great divergence" facilitated by the industrial revolution and expansive imperialism. History writing is no longer limited to telling the tale of the emerging nation-states but has turned into an exciting collaborative enterprise of understanding broader connections and conducting more comparative analysis. These joint efforts have led to academic crossing of geographic and thematic borders that once appeared insurmountable and have in such way enriched the academic field of history at large.
Within this grander (Western) world narrative of the nineteenth century the role of Korea still appears to be marginal, if it is considered at all. The aim of this proposed Heidelberg conference project is to bridge the gap between scholars of global or East Asian history and Korea specialists. One of the main academic problems is how to conceptualize the history of Korea within current historical frameworks and interpretations to introduce the specificities of the Korean case to a larger world audience. The planned conference will go back to revisit one of the central problems of modern Korean history with an emphasis on the global context, namely why Korea lost its national independence in the age of imperialism. This question has been asked before by several generations of Korea historians but we would like to pose it again considering the insights of global history and as a transnational collaborative effort of Korea specialists and historians whose primary research expertise may be on other world regions. By doing so, we want to reexamine Korea's longer term development in the nineteenth century and its interaction with foreign powers and cultures especially during the second half of the nineteenth century. The aim is to include classical fields such as diplomatic, political, military and economic history but also to consider broader perspectives on society and culture in the redefinition of Korea's place in the transformation of the emerging modern world.
Sincerely,
Harald Fuess
                                                                                            u
Professor for Cultural Economic History
[3Z_Excl_logo_cmyk]

Speaker for the Graduate Programs in Transcultural Studies
Cluster of Excellence "Asia and Europe in a Global Context"
Karl Jaspers Centre
Voßstraße 2, Building 4400
69115 Heidelberg
Germany
Phone: +49 (0) 6221 - 54 40 80

Administrative Contact:
Ms. Christina Pietsch
Phone: +49 (0) 6221 - 54 43 57
Fax:   +49 (0) 6221 - 54 44 90
e-mail: christina.pietsch at asia-europe.uni-heidelberg.de<mailto:christina.pietsch at asia-europe.uni-heidelberg.de>

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