Introduction to Korean History and Culture is a course that aims to strengthen the historical and cultural background of foreign students and anyone who did not have the opportunity to properly learn about how the Korean peninsula came to be. The class, which has always been highly rated by undergraduate students on Korea University (KU)’s unofficial scoring platform KLUE, is undoubtedly the right choice for students of international backgrounds attempting to get a brief historical and analytical introduction to South Korea.

Introduction to Korean History and Culture is a three-credit elective general studies course that is held twice a week and taught by Professor Kim Sung-nam, also known as Sean Kim, an Asian Studies graduate from the University of California, Berkeley. He is an expert when it comes to the study of the Korean people. During the first half of the semester, students learn interesting facts on how K-pop started and gained popularity, eventually leading to the phenomenon of Hallyu, or the popularity of the culture of South Korea. The second half of the semester covers the general history of Korea, which begins from the founding of its people and ends with the Miracle on the Han River and South Korea’s democratization.

Both South Korea and North Korea are well known on the international stage for very different reasons, but even though political differences exist, they still share similar traditions, history, and rich cultures. One of the most interesting knowledge areas from this course is how there is an emphasis in modern Korean culture to how it relates to the idea of “Korean-ness” and its identity, while it also teaches history in chronological order with emphasis on specific events and incidents with fascinating details that are brief and fittingly easy to understand.

Students are evaluated based on flexible attendance, a group presentation or an essay, and take-home mid-term and final examinations. Another unusual element of the class rubric is elective excursions to historical sites, where students can choose to visit the War Memorial of Korea, the National Museum of Korea, or other important locations. The course was generally made to lessen the academic burden of students taking this class, as students are given more freedom and less workload in comparison to most courses.

To take a deep dive into the Introduction to Korean History and Culture course, The Granite Tower (GT) has interviewed Professor Kim.

GT: Why did you decide to teach this course, and what are your main objectives?

Kim: Well, it was as much coincidence as it was my desire to teach it. I had actually wanted to teach ever since I got my Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D), but never quite had the opportunity. Then, I was in an academic conference in late 2012, when someone suggested that I teach an English-language course in KU, Introduction to Korean History and Culture. I was thrilled that I was given the opportunity. What’s more is that it was in the field of Korean Studies, to which I had dedicated years of study. I was excited because I had developed certain views and perspectives regarding Korea during the course of my career as a professional academic, and that I would be able to explain what I had learned and researched to other people.

This involved contradicting many “conventional wisdoms” regarding Korean history. Though some of these “conventional wisdoms” had been challenged within a small circle of academics, they had not been given a proper hearing in a classroom setting, much less in the public arena. This became the overriding objective regarding this course. To make a long story short, I was excited that I was being given a pulpit from which to preach my academic views.

GT: What topics of Korean history and culture do you mainly emphasize on through this course?

Kim: My lectures mainly come from an analysis of narratives, meaning what people think and tell about the times they live in. These narratives tend to come and go and change with the times, but there are some narratives that are very persistent. Regarding Korea, there are two very persistent and long-standing narratives: the “Edge not Center” narrative and the “We are Small” narrative.

It seems that many Koreans, both academics and laypersons think that Korea has always existed on the periphery of a “great civilization,” never contributing to the larger flow of regional and world history. Also, there is a tendency among Koreans, for centuries now, to see themselves as “small.” Unfortunately, this is also how many Koreans describe their own country when explaining things about their country to people from other regions. Although my course includes many other facts and narratives, all are essentially extensions of these two, overriding narratives.

This course is an attempt to dispel, in my opinion, harmful narratives by including such topics as imperiality, that there were empires in Korean history that thought of themselves as the center and developed clear notions of imperiality. Some of the secondary topics that I also touch upon are gender relations and notions of social hierarchy in premodern Korea, which have been turned into stereotypes that justify many erroneous ideas and narratives presently.

GT: Besides two excursions to famous Korean historical sites, what kind of activities would you have planned to do if the course went back to being fully offline?

Kim: Actually, what I have always thought about doing is to hold a class in an outdoor setting, where I have people sit down on the grass or on rocks in an open spot in a park, or some historical monument with open space, and do a lecture there. However, I have always had trouble picking out a place or arranging the necessary logistics to make it happen. If you, or the readers of Granite Tower can throw some ideas my way, I am all ears.

GT: What do you want to say to KU students that have taken this class, are taking it, or want to take it?

Kim: A somewhat standard historian-speak. History is NOT a collection of facts and dates. History is exactly what it is – a story. It is one giant story that tells everyone about things and people. There can be a history of things, like locomotives; a history of a certain human activity, like war; there are even attempts to tell the history of all of us – like the History Channel program, Mankind. This class is not about facts and dates to connect the dots about Korea. What you have gotten, or will be getting, is a story that will help you make sense of all of us or all of them in Korea. And through that, hopefully, students now realize, or will realize, that Koreans are a people like any other, and Korea is a country like any other. Yes, Korea might have its quirks and offbeat features, but in the end, Koreans are a part of all of us. Teaching this fact is what this class is about.