The Stanford Korean Studies Program (KSP) was formally established in 2001 at the Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) with the appointment of Professor Gi-Wook Shin, as the founding director. The Stanford KSP offers courses on Korea, hosts seminars related to the study of Korea, sponsors workshops and conferences, conducts research projects, supports fellowships, and collaborates with a broad range of visiting scholars. Stanford KSP also works closely with Stanford's Center for East Asian Studies (CEAS), which offers a Master's Degree in East Asian Studies with a specialty in Korea.

When Professor Shin left UCLA to come to Stanford, he left the largest Korean studies program in the nation. With true entrepreneurial spirit, he has built an impressive and dynamic Korean studies program. It hosts luncheon seminars, workshops, and conferences, and has sponsored many Korean scholars, government officials, and business leaders who spend time at Stanford as visiting scholars. It also supports an active research program. Stanford is steadily becoming a world-class center for contemporary Korean studies.
- Coit D. Blacker, Director FSI

Stanford KSP focuses on multidisciplinary, social science-oriented, collaborative research on policy-relevant topics on Korea. Unlike programs that operate within a single discipline, Stanford KSP promotes interdisciplinary research by using the tools and insights of both area studies and the social sciences. Stanford KSP's mission is to be a research center in the truest sense, with its own research fellows and collaborative projects. It also seeks close collaboration with similar institutions in Korea and elsewhere.

Faculty and Fellows

Stanford KSP includes faculty, postdoctoral research fellows, Pantech professional fellows, predoctoral fellows, and program coordinator. A Korean language lecturer and Korean Studies librarian also support program activities. In addition, Stanford KSP taps into the array of Stanford-based faculty and senior fellows who conduct policy-related research on Korea, including William J. Perry (Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, or FSI), Michael Armacost (Shorenstein APARC), Henry F. Rowen (Hoover Institution and Shorenstein APARC), Larry Diamond (Hoover Institution), and Daniel I. Okimoto (Shorenstein APARC). The program benefits greatly from the broad experience of these distinguished individuals and the real-world perspective they bring to bear on Stanford KSP seminars, conferences, teaching, and publications.

Research

Stanford KSP sponsors collaborative research projects on a range of Korea-related subjects. The South Korean National Assembly Project considers the generational change under way in South Korea’s government, the political and ideological implications of this shift, and how it will affect Assembly votes—and Korean policy—on major issues. Stanford KSP researchers are also involved in projects on mass media and U.S.-Korea relations, and the Korean experience of historical injustice and reconciliation. Another project just completed, sponsored by the Korea Research Foundation, focuses on the interplay of global and regional forces in Korea, and South Koreans’ current reconsideration of their place in the world order. Findings from these and other groundbreaking projects are regularly presented at Stanford KSP seminars and conferences, produced as journal articles, and published as books.

Programs

Each year, to advance its mission to teach and train the next generation of scholars, Stanford KSP offers a variety of fellowships, and hosts visiting scholars from Korea and elsewhere. Several of the fellowships are made possible, respectively, through generous support from the Pantech Group, the Korea Foundation, and NGO fellowship is sponsored by the POSCO T.J. Park Foundation. Jointly with Stanford’s Center for East Asian Studies, the Stanford KSP has initiated a Korea internship program and regularly convenes popular overseas seminars in Seoul, which enable Stanford undergraduates to experience Korean politics, history, and culture first-hand.

In addition, Stanford KSP hosts Korean luncheon seminars, often standing-room only events in which eminent and emerging scholars present their work. The program holds a number of workshops and conferences on Korean affairs each year; the proceedings of several conferences have been published as part of Shorenstein APARC’s monograph series with the Brookings Institution Press.

Stanford KSP is also the editorial home to the Journal of Korean Studies (JKS). Long a leading academic forum for the publication of innovative and in-depth research, the JKS is dedicated to high-quality articles, in all disciplines, on a broad range of topics concerning Korea, both historical and contemporary. The journal is published and distributed annually by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.