Thank you, Seung-Kyung.
I am delighted to have the opportunity to speak at today’s celebration recognizing the 10th anniversary of the founding of the Institute for Korean Studies within the Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies in 2015. And I would like to warmly welcome the many distinguished guests who have traveled to Indiana University from all over North America for today’s celebration. Your presence here today is a wonderful tribute to the standing of the institute.
By any measure, the institute has been a major success, more than fulfilling the vision and goals we had for it when it was founded. It was founded as an institute focused on the study of modern Korea, one of the most prosperous, technologically advanced, and socially dynamic countries in the world, but a country with a rich and ancient culture and civilization.
I first visited Korea in 1990 and have been there about 10 times, including numerous times when I was IU president. Professor Kim has reminded me that she was with me on two of these visits. So, I have watched over 35 years the remarkable growth of Korea to become a highly sophisticated modern democracy and a technology and industrial powerhouse. I was deeply honored to have received an honorary Doctor of Science degree from Sungkyunkwan University in 2008. Laurie and I have made many friends in Korea, and we hope we will have the opportunity to visit there again one day.
One of our goals in establishing what became the Hamilton Lugar School was to make it one of the country’s and the Midwest’s premier centers for international studies, on par with the best such centers on the East and West coasts. Our strategy for doing this was to build on the bedrock of IU’s longstanding excellence in foreign language and cultural studies and to establish or strengthen centers focused on a number of key countries or regions, and especially those where IU had particularly strong alumni bases and intellectual interests and relationships. One of these countries was Korea, which had one of IU’s strongest and most enthusiastic international alumni bases.
When I announced this plan on a visit to Korea in 2013, and in particular our plan to establish an Institute for Korean Studies with an emphasis on modern Korea, it was very enthusiastically received by our alumni there, whose support we sought. It was also positively received by the Korea Foundation who I also approached for support. Considerable work and effort were put into these plans, and this led a year or so later to the first chair being jointly funded by the Korea Foundation and a number of extraordinarily generous alumni. This is the chair that Professor Kim now holds.
Since then, of course, the institute has been very successful in attracting substantial additional funding from a variety of sources. This has enabled it, through its scholarly excellence, to develop into one of the preeminent centers for Korean Studies in the United States.
So, in this, the 10th year since the institute was founded, many people and organizations need to be thanked and congratulated.
- The Korean government through the Korea Foundation in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Academy of Korean Studies in the Ministry of Education, and the King Sejong Institute Foundation in the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.
- IU’s wonderfully generous Korean alumni, Young-Jin Kim and Wun-Suk Joo, as well as an anonymous alumnus.
- IU’s Korean alumni more generally, for their enthusiastic and energetic support.
- Deans Feinstein and Ciociari.
- The faculty, staff, and students of the institute.
- But above all, Professor Seung-Kyung Kim, whose outstanding leadership of the institute has been a vital factor in its success.
Congratulations again to the institute on the 10th anniversary of its founding and best wishes for the next 10 years.