The Development of the Korean Studies Program and the Installation

of Window on Korea at the Central University of Chile

Kim Soonbae

Director at the Center for Comparative Studies of Korea

The Central University of Chile (Universidad Central de Chile)

On January 16, 2024, a Window on Korea room was opened at the Central University of Chile. It was an important moment for the university as it secured a basic framework for the local development of Korean Studies. The history of Korean Studies at the Central University of Chile goes back ten years to the second semester of 2014. It was not yet a popular area of study at that time: There were only two beginner classes in Korean language and we worried about meeting the minimum number of students required for opening classes. Since then, the number of students taking Korean language classes has steadily increased. Special lectures and seminars on Korean Studies began to be offered as students’ interest started growing beyond the language. Identifying this momentum and understanding the need for a degree program for the sustainable growth of Korean Studies, the university introduced a master’s course in Korean Studies in 2016 and formally launched it in April 2018 as the first and only such program in Latin America. While we were preparing, we envisioned a Korean Studies program in which students could integrate the knowledge they brought from their undergraduate majors into Korean Studies and develop themselves as experts on Korea in their areas of interest.

The Korean Studies master’s degree program is part of a Regional Studies program known for its interdisciplinary curriculum. Beginning with eight students in the first year, the number has continued to grow, and 15-20 new students have enrolled every year since 2021. Students come not only from Santiago, but from other provinces as well. They are drawn from a wide range of undergraduate majors, including history, literature, law, sociology, nursing, and biology. One thing they share is a passion for Korean Studies, and they choose their thesis topic by linking their undergraduate majors to the discipline.

The strongest impetus for the development of Korean Studies at the Central University of Chile came from the Seed Program for Korean Studies supported by the Korean Studies Promotion Service. The university was first selected by the program in 2017 for the establishment of a master’s course in Korean Studies and the opening of the Center for Comparative Studies of Korea. Through this program, students starting the master’s course in 2018 were provided scholarships equivalent to 50% of tuition for three years. At a point when trust in this new academic program was just being established, the scholarship played an important role in attracting interested students. The Seed Program also allowed us to hire a full-time faculty member.

The King Sejong Institute opened on campus in late 2018, and began offering classes in 2019. Currently, the Institute offers 15 classes each semester to 200-250 students. It serves as an important gateway for students to advance to the Korean Studies master’s course. In 2019, the Center for Comparative Studies of Korea opened as a research arm of the Korean Studies program. With an overarching goal of promoting interdisciplinary approaches through comparative research, the Center oversees the Korean Studies program at the University. Researchers at the Center have twice participated in the Overseas Policy Research support program of the Korea Foundation designed to support the research theme of South Korea’s e-government and culture industry. Our research interests lie in the relationship between South Korea and Chile and the policy implications of South Korean practices on Chile.

Entitled “The Development of the Only Korean Studies Master’s Program in Central and South America: Strengthen, Spread, and Cultivate Future Leaders,” the second round of the Seed Program for Korean Studies was implemented from 2020 to 2023 with a focus on the qualitative growth of the Korean Studies program. Under the Seed Program, three students every year were given an opportunity to visit South Korea for one to two months to conduct field studies for their theses. In addition, TA and thesis scholarships were provided to allow students to focus on their studies without financial concerns. Based on such efforts, four students have been able to advance to a doctoral program to pursue further research on Korea-related issues. This indicate how we are gradually approaching our goal of producing a body of Korea experts in Chile.

One of the greatest challenges we faced over the process of developing the Korean Studies program was a lack of teaching and research materials. While we were able to acquire some books through the Korea Foundation’s Korean Studies Research Materials Support program, the supply remained significantly insufficient. Classes had to be offered online due to the Covid-19 pandemic for almost three years from 2020 to 2022. With physical libraries closed, students had to rely on digital resources. Books were more difficult to acquire than were papers. Spanish books on Korea are scarce. English-language books are too expensive to ask students to purchase.

Amidst these difficult circumstances, we applied for the National Library of Korea’s Window on Korea program in 2022 and were honored to be selected. A WOK has been installed in Mexico (Colegio de México) and El Salvador (Universidad de El Salvador), but ours was the first in South America.

The Central University of Chile has two campuses: one in Santiago and another in La Serena. The WOK room was installed on the University’s Santiago campus with an area of 109㎡on the first basement floor. Through the WOK project, we acquired roughly 1,600 books in 2023 spanning a wide range of topics including history, politics, and culture. We will receive a total of 3,000 books over the next five years. These books, which cover a wide range of topics from the Korean Wave to Jaebeol, North Korea’s political structure, and Koreans’ religious lives, will be made accessible not only to the members of our university but also to the libraries of some 70 institutions and universities that have signed cooperation agreements with the Central University of Chile.

The dedicated Korean Studies space features traditional Korean sitting desks and sliding doors to offer visitors an immersive experience of traditional Korean culture. It was not easy to procure the Korean-style sliding doors in Chile. We had to describe the design to the maker multiple times and monitor the crafting process. On one occasion we found that the doors were being made in a Japanese style and had to have it corrected. We also had to import hanji, traditional Korean paper, from South Korea, which took several months and delayed the entire project. Today, the WOK room is serving as a library with over 1,600 books on Korea and is considered one of the most beautiful spaces on campus. “The Korean Studies program is gradually taking over the entire school,” joked my coworkers, reflecting how the Korean Studies program is entrenching itself at the University. Our next goal is to make WOK a welcoming place for everyone, including students and teachers. We are also in discussions with the University Library management team about ways to maximize the use of the WOK space for education and research.

At the Opening Ceremony, Farías Sisters, a dance group made up of King Sejong Institute students, received enthusiastic applause for a fusion dance that combined a traditional Korean fan dance with cueca, Chile’s national dance. It was a moment when an exotic Korean dance and a familiar Chilean custom struck a harmony to foster mutual understanding and bring an audience together beyond their individual differences. Like this dance, what we plan to do with Korean Studies in Chile is simple: offer an opportunity for people on opposite sides of the earth to become curious about each other, get to know each other better, and come to understand each other. As its name “Window on Korea” indicates, I believe our room will become a window that promotes greater understanding of Korea.