[KS] Announcing the 2025 Sherman Family Korea Emerging Scholar Lecture Awardee

[Linda Tobash]

*2025 SHERMAN FAMILY KOREA EMERGING SCHOLAR LECTURE*

*Reframing Suicide as a Shared Social Responsibility in Korea*
*Dr. Peter Jongho Na*


*HYBRID Program ** MONDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2025 | 4:00 PM (EST) *

The Korea Society is pleased to announce that the ninth annual Sherman
Family Korea Emerging Scholar Lecture Awardee is Dr. Peter Jongho Na,
assistant professor of psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine.  In his
lecture, *Reframing Suicide as a Shared Social Responsibility in Korea*, he
casts suicide not as an individual failure or “extreme choice (극단적 선택),”
but as a systemic and cultural crisis requiring a coordinated national
response.



Drawing on his experience as a psychiatrist, public health researcher, and
mental health advocate, he examines the scale and societal costs of suicide
in Korea and analyzes key structural drivers such as academic and workplace
pressures, poverty and isolation among older adults, and the pervasive
stigma surrounding mental illness and treatment.

A central theme is how stigma has sustained silence, denial, and policy
inertia.



Dr. Peter Jongho Na shares his efforts to challenge euphemistic language
and foster open public dialogue, while proposing an interdisciplinary
roadmap inspired by global models that integrate public health, education,
and social welfare reforms. Further, he highlights the Korean diaspora’s
potential role in breaking taboos and advancing cultural and policy change,
underscoring that suicide prevention must be embraced as a collective,
societal responsibility.

Click here
<https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScI8kTarEXsNhMFUV7-Dh3k0yr74RPkwTeLFKbLwVKliQ3vWA/viewform>
 to sign up to attend this lecture in-person at The Korea Society
Click here
<https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeNFMa1P_Fk1z8ynGBclqVbD0_qS_D-AbXZ7bMSHWu0_9U69g/viewform>
to
receive the virtual  viewing link



Note: *This presentation includes discussion of suicide and mental health
topics that may be distressing to some individuals.*

For further information and to visit past awardees, visit our website.
<https://www.koreasociety.org/education/sherman-scholar-award-recipients/presentations-by-sherman-scholar-award-recipients>
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