For current Rutgers students who are interested in taking courses with me, please check my trailers and work from prior students under “Course Gallery.” Also refer to the ALC department website and the Schedule of Classes, for up-to-date information about offerings.
For students who are currently enrolled in courses with me, all course-related information should be available on Canvas. If your questions are not addressed there, please reach out to me directly.
If you have worked with me before and would like to request a recommendation, please write me with the subject line, “Recommendation request.” If we have not been in touch for a long period, let me know which course(s) you took with me, update me on what you have been working on since the course, and what you are interested in applying to. Ideally, you want to make contact with your recommender at least two months in advance of the deadline.
Online English-language Resources on Korean Literature and Culture (in no particular order)
For recent English-language research written for a scholarly audience, use your university library website to access journals such as Journal of Korean studies, Acta Koreana, Korean Studies, Korea Journal, and Journal of Asian Studies. Most of you may find it easier to download relevant articles in these publications by searching in your university library search engines. Please reach out to me or your university librarian for further assistance.
YouTube channels can offer high-quality intellectual and scholarly content dealing with issues of Korean politics, international relations, society, culture, and literature. You can browse through the talks to find topics that interest you: The Nam Center of Korean Studies at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Institute of Korean Studies at Indiana University, Bloomington. University of Southern California KSI. Institute of Korean Studies at George Washington University. Those of you interested in graduate programs in Korean studies may use these channels to learn about particular programs and scholars.
Korean Classic Film Channel on YouTube, which is an actively curated and updated archive of streamable Korean films (over a hundred titles available).
Korean Literature Now: literary magazine published by the Literature Translation Institute of Korea, a government-funded organization. Good resource for research on contemporary literature.
North Korean Literature in English: A lit blog run by a Fulbright-grantee on — you guessed it! — North Korean literature.
Koreanfilm.org: one of the first English-language websites to offer a comprehensive evaluation of contemporary South Korean cinema. Begun by Darcy Paquet, the subtitlest of the Oscar-winning film Parasite back in 1999. It also offers a very useful and updated guide to scholarly books on Korean cinema.
Korea Now Podcast: a podcast boasting a wide range of expert and scholar guests, discussing Korean politics, society, and culture. Summer 2020 episodes contains a series on Korean literature.
Korea Society: A New York-based organization which hosts events covering issues of international affairs, politics, society and culture. The site contains a wealth of streamable talks and lectures on an array of topics.
Korea Exposé: Cutting-edge reporting and cultural analysis. Left-leaning.
Chosun Daily: Conservative-leaning major daily in South Korea.
Hankyoreh: Liberal-leaning major daily in South Korea.
Words without Borders: Contains a number of Korean works in translation, along with essays from translators.
Asymptote: Taiwan-based online magazine dedicated to translations of world literature, including poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and drama, mostly to English. Contains interesting coverage of contemporary Korean literature.
Rodong Sinmun: The official newspaper of North Korea’s Central Committee of the Worker’s Party of [North] Korea.
The Grand Narrative: blog on Korean feminism, sexuality, and popular culture.
Scribblings of a Metropolitician: blog on race, gender, consumption, fashion, and popular culture in South Korea.
Brother Anthony of Taize’s Korean Studies links: a treasure trove of links to Korea-related cultural material, spanning art, literature, music, and tea. This particular section of his page offers an excellent compilation of links for research, translation, and cultural background. It includes an online introduction to Neo-Confucianism.
Seoul, Korea. 8 October 1945. Photographed by Webb. From NARA.
Jae Won Edward Chung © Copyright 2020.
Jae Won Edward Chung 