[KS] Vale Ken Wells

[Roald Maliangkay]

Dear list members,

It is with great sadness that I share the news of Ken Wells’ passing.

Ken's many contributions to Korean Studies include having founded the Korean language program at Indiana University, the ANU Centre for Korean Studies, the Korean Studies Association of Australasia, and having been ANU's first Korea Foundation Chair of Korean history.

Ken was a truly remarkable scholar who published seminal works on Korean history and loved to teach and debate things with students and peers. Among his key publications are New God, New Nation: Protestants and Self-Reconstruction Nationalism in Korea, 1896–1937 (1990), South Korea's Minjung Movement: The Culture and Politics of Dissidence (1995), and Korea: Outline of a Civilisation (2015). At ANU he taught courses on modern Korean history, gender, and language. I always admired his wit and wisdom and sought to write prose as beautifully as he did, but I knew I never would, so instead, I would — unsuccessfully — seek to blur his words by joining him for a pint at an Irish club in Canberra every so often. There we would inevitably talk about our families and cheeky pets while watching rugby (union), which sometimes prompted him to reminisce with a big grin about the countless injuries he incurred playing the sport in younger years, back in beautiful New Zealand. Ken, a voracious reader, would comment on events and research in remarkable detail. He cared deeply for the specifics and essence of experiences and ideas and, unlike me, always saw through hollow presentations. While he tended to be critical of university management, populism, and politics, Ken recognised and admired the kindness and unique talents of the people he worked with.

Although Ken had an amazing career, his greatest achievement is his family, who loved him dearly and who share his kindness and wit, and his passion for history, art, travel, and animals. Thankfully, they were all with him when he passed. On behalf of ANU, I wish to express my deepest condolences to his wife Young-Oak, and his children Natalya, Jaeson, Jeremy, and Maurice.

He will be very much missed, and remembered.

Sincerely,

Roald



Prof. Roald Maliangkay | Director, Korea Institute | HDR Director, CHL | College of Asia & the Pacific | Coombs Building Rm 2.370 |  9 Fellows Rd | Acton, Canberra, ACT 2601 | The Australian National University | TEQSA Provider ID: PRV12002 | CRICOS Provider: 00120C | ABN: 52 234 063 906 | Website<https://researchportalplus.anu.edu.au/en/persons/roald-maliangkay> |
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